Arashi No Naka e (嵐の中へ)- Into The Storm
by la-la-lappu
Summary: When life hits you with lemons you make lemonade. When life, afterlife and then another life keep hitting you I don't know what to do! SI-OC as Naruto's twin brother. lots of chakra theory and jutsu mechanics in later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is my first attempt at writing fanfics so please don't be too harsh on me. The summary might suck, sorry about that most probably will be changing that title too. Please enjoy, follow, favorite and REVIEW**

 **Also, can anyone please help me writing a good enough summary? Please...**

 **REVIEWS ARE LOVE, REVIEWS ARE LIFE...**

 **Disclaimer: Obviously i don't own Naruto or any characters. the OC's and the jutsu ideas though... MINE.**

* * *

Age- one week

My name is Rajesh. I am an Indian programmer working in US. Or at least I used to be (damn you Trump!). It wasn't all bad mind you. I got a request for resignation, and me and my wife both got new jobs in Canada within a month. I did die in an accident on the day I was going to resign. That sucked. After the living programmer gig I was dead for a while, I don't exactly remember how long I did that but just being there in a dark place with absolute nothing gets kinda boring after a while. It also ruins your concept of time. Anyways after that whole afterlife thing I'm again trying something new here. I mean we Indians are no strangers to job skipping. It's not like I have any control over my situation whatsoever, but thinking like it's my doing helps a little. Otherwise I would just be blaming some random omnipotent entity and that is absolutely useless. So about this new thing, I guess I'm giving the whole 'living' thing a try once more, which is interesting because Hinduism has so many categories and classes and castes and entire different belief systems that it gets a little difficult to keep track of who said what regarding the afterlife. One belief is that you get judged and then the evil souls are purged by Shiva and the good ones become a part of Vishnu. Another says you get salvation after your body gets cremated and after that the soul doesn't need anything else. Another belief system is the cycle of life, which says you live your life, you die, your soul is cleansed and you start over again. But I don't think the cleansing thing happened with me seeing as I still remember my past life.

Oh did I tell you that I have a twin this time? Yup, I haven't really mastered the whole 'turning the neck' thing or the 'seeing' thing yet so I don't know how they (and I) look or their (and mine) gender (hopefully I'm still male) yet but for the short periods of our lives, we've existed together and whenever they cry and wail I can't stop my body I just start crying too (it's kinda embarrassing really but I'm an infant now so who cares).

The whole child birth is a magical moment is so full of crap. It's propaganda I say. Because no one in that delivery room is happy. The mother is in pain, the father is scared out of his mind, the doctor is annoyed/tired/worried and from the baby's point of view it isn't a good experience either. Ever had to go to work or college or school on cold winter days but you are in your bed within a warm blanket nest? You have to leave the cozy, comfortable bed and face the cold harsh world. Now increase the comfort you felt in the bed by at least ten times and increase the coldness and harshness of the world by fifty time because infant body is extremely weak, add on the annoyance you feel when instead of getting out willingly someone is pushing you out violently and now you know how a baby feels.

But all that doesn't really matter now because I'm extremely worried at the moment. I don't know how long I've been alive for (most of the time I'm tired and sleeping) but whatever waking hours I have spent have been like cliché self inserts fanfictions. The people taking our care speak Japanese, there have been quite a few shouting matches around us, the birthing was not a good experience and some chaotic (and maybe violent I don't know I slept through most of it) event occurred right after our birth. Till now my life has shown perfect signs of being a cannon character's self-insert twin. Maybe I'm just overthinking it. My wife was right. I should have stopped reading them long ago. I'll figure out that I was worried for nothing once I start seeing. Right.

* * *

Age- Four months

Or so I thought. The first time I was clearly able to make out my twin's face, I knew I was screwed. My twin brother has blonde hair, blue eyes and three whisker like scars on each cheek. My brother is Uzumaki Naruto. I had read many fanfictions with similar scenarios. There was that one with Shikamaru's twin, the one with Ino's twin, the one with Sasuke's twin, there was one where Naruto had a twin sister as well. None about Naruto having a twin brother. Wonder what that is about.

I am Naruto Uzumaki's twin brother. Any hopes I had about staying on the sidelines are out the window. I'm not one of those people who think they'll save the Uchiha clan or motivate Sakura early or save Sandaime from Orochimaru. That kind of thinking is the entire problem of this world. Forcing others to follow your way is never going to work, that is what happened in canon. One guy thought he knew the best and therefore he should help other see the way. This single sentence can explain the entire story of Danzo, Pein, Madara (I know he was manipulated by Zetsu but that is the answer he arrived at) and Kaguya (she went crazy with power later but her intention behind eating the steroid fruit was AGAIN WORLD PEACE). The irony of the story of Naruto is that so many people dedicate their lives to bring about peace and then they all kept fighting to prove that their way was best. Everybody is trying to solve everybody's problem and forcing them to swallow their solution (that came out **wrong**!).

Either way the massive fanfiction community teaches us that there are quite a few ways to deal with this dilemma.

1) Grow strong enough and then run away: Appealing. But by the time I am strong enough to be considered S-rank the whole mess would have sorted itself out already. So what's the point?

2) Try to manipulate people and events using the foreknowledge available to get a better outcome: Not happening

3) Take care of yourself and others you grow close to and let the rest take care of themselves: Sounds like a dick move but THAT'S WHAT TRUMP DID … Ahem sorry about that. Yeah so that may sound a little selfish but that is the popular approach towards life on modern earth and look how happy people over there are.

4) Deal with shit as it comes: Very popular amongst engineers. The classic procrastination approach. Has its pros and cons but might get some very interesting results.

5) Wreck the plot line: Don't want your life to be a predictable story? Change a few key events and BAM all your foreknowledge is useless and you have life's surprises-that-hit-you-in-the-nuts-when-you-are-not-looking back.

6) Mix-bag: Use a combination of multiple approaches. That one sounds interesting. There are too many threats and nuisances lurking around that will come later to bite Naruto (as the whole world revolves around him) and therefore, me, and that is going to be problematic. Instead of being the global savior all I have to do is ensure me and mine's safety. That actually does sound enough and doable.

One thing at a time. The first objective I would like to achieve is bladder and bowel control but that is a long ways away. The first thing we can do is solving the problem of locomotion and communication. No worries. Naruto was born on October 10th, judging by our caretaker's clothing, its winter now so January or early February. That make us 3-4 months old, babies generally can sit on their own by the time they are 6 months old. So I guess it's time to start rolling practice.

* * *

Age- Seven months

Objective complete! We must be around 6-7 months old now. It took a little longer than I expected but we can now sit on our own and maintain our balance long enough. It was a bit difficult at first because the caretakers left us in the crib all day long and trying to convey the message that I want them to put us on the floor was a little difficult at the time. But after I mastered squirming, Naruto did too and that made the crib really cramped and they started leaving us on the floor during daytime.

Sitting and crawling came together, and that lead to our daily excursion trips to explore our surroundings. We don't live in an orphanage like I expected. Instead we live in a house. I haven't seen outside yet but I'm betting that this is an out of the way place in the forest surrounding Konoha protected by powerful barriers and seals meant to keep outside things outside and inside things inside. And it makes a lot of sense to put us here instead of the orphanage.

The person who sealed one of the most powerful beings in this world inside two infants is dead. The person who understood said seal and had the experience of having said powerful being inside themselves is dead. The person who might have had a chance to understand the seal to some extant is out in the world spreading counter-intelligence and running a spy network. The rest of the Konoha is barely holding itself together. They are playing blind here. They don't know if the seal was properly applied or not. They don't know how an infant's rapidly growing body and chakra coils will affect the seal. If something does go wrong they want it to happen outside there city to avoid loss of even more lives and resources. This place must be surrounded and observed by ANBU 24/7 to avoid anyone from outside doing any funny business and to make sure that we are stable and safe (ourselves as well as for others).

With our increased activity, the time Hiruzen spends with us daily has increased as well or maybe I'm awake long enough to notice he's still there or we can actually do stuff to engage him with us long enough. I guess it's a mixture of all those. The point is he spends his evenings with us and again it makes sense to me. The whole jinchuuriki are close to the kage is not a convention or anything, it's a necessity. It's basic common sense to have someone capable of going nuclear in the future emotionally close to you to ensure loyalty. In many fanfics the sandaime left Naruto in an orphanage trusting the matrons to be good with him which totally stupid. Even if the matrons treated him fairly and he had a good life at the place how come he is suddenly so close with the man to call him ji-ji when he clearly understands how important the hokage is? No matter what Naruto's condition might be Hiruzen must have visited him frequently, no, the hokage would have met him almost daily inside as well as outside the orphanage and he must have been allowed to come to the hokage's office whenever he wishes. Continuous contact to instill a belief that even if the whole world is against me the hokage will have my back. The person will eventually be grateful and return the favor ten times over.

He points at pictures and things and calls out their names. He is teaching us to talk. He also reads stories from books to us, even if we don't understand a word of it (me because I'm not that good at Japanese while Naruto because he is, well he is an infant so…) we do try to imitate the sounds he is making. I guess the next objective is to establish communication.

* * *

Age- Nine months

I finally found out my name and I couldn't be more relieved. My name is Arashi (storm), my brother's name is Naruto (maelstrom) and our last names are Uzumaki (whirlpool) and Namikaze (waves and wind) which makes a nice theme. God forbid if Kushina would have named me Menma (dried bamboo based topping) and with my brother being Naruto (can also mean fish cakes slices) the theme would have become ramen. Oh the horror!

For the past month and a half, I have been trying to speak and the noises I make have been coming closer to what they should sound like. I think I should be able to speak broken words in a few weeks.

I've been thinking and I realized that there might be problems and threats against me and Naruto much earlier than I assumed. The biggest threat to us right now is the one inside konoha. In cannon Minato sealed the yang half of the kyuubi in Naruto while he sealed the yin half in himself. Here he had two sons so it might be possible that he sealed one half in each of us. I don't have any way to confirm whether or not I am a jinchuuriki till I can channel chakra but if I am then that creates a few problems. In canon, Danzo wanted Naruto under his control. He wanted Naruto to be a weapon of mass destruction. But Hiruzen wouldn't allow it. Here we have a spare. If the hokage is too stubborn, Danzo just might try to take one of us. Or worse, the hokage might agree to Danzo and him keeping one each, because let's be honest here, despite his kind, grandfatherly image, he is a military dictator. If he thinks that giving one of us to Danzo might help the village he just might do it. Now Naruto can't be in ROOT, he needs to be out here, taking names and making friends to save the world and I don't want to go to ROOT because who in their right mind would want to? I'm going to be conscripted into their army of super soldiers in return of the satisfaction of being said super soldier and that's it. I am not going through any more lunacy for konoha. But if Danzo does try to take one or both of us then I don't think I'm in any position to resist as I am now. The more time passes, the more they will consider us stable and the more the chances of an abduction attempt to ROOT increases.

* * *

Age- One year

It's our first birthday and Hiruzen or 'ji-ji' as he likes us to call him spent the entire day with us today (I think it's a clone the hokage should be a busy person). Anyway he brought us new toys, he played with us in the yard and he read us stories. I took Japanese in college for one semester so I know a little hiragana, I was trying to read the book myself when he saw me and started teaching me to read and gave me two more picture books. If in canon he did the same with Naruto, then no wonder they were close. He practically raised Naruto. As far as birthdays go, It was a good day, the week after that not so much.

I want to say I called it because I totally did. Our place might be surrounded by ANBU (I have no proof of that but its common sense really) but they never show themselves to us (their presence just seems logical). Other caretakers in civilian garb look after us (I'm pretty sure they are shinobi too. Again, it just logical). These caretakers keep changing every few days. No single person has been here for more than a week.

One such caretaker on her first day come in our room and distracted Naruto with a new toy. It has flickering lights and everything, very eye catching especially for a one year old. While he was distracted she picked me up and left. Ever since we can walk and run the caretakers take us out to the yard every day for a few hours. We can do whatever we want but they never let us go near the wall surrounding the compound. This woman took me across the wall outside the compound. At first I was calm thinking the ANBU wouldn't let just anyone take me but the farther away we got the more panicked I felt. I had never been more than a few feet away from Naruto in this life. All of a sudden this woman was separating us, something wasn't right. By the time the compound walls started growing smaller, I was having a full blown panic attack. The weird thing about my anxiety was where it was coming from. Until now I didn't want to go to ROOT but now the panic, the anxiety was not by thought of going to ROOT but instead it was about going away from Naruto. Sure he was my biological twin but he was mentally younger than me by two and a half decades and I had just gotten over the fact that he isn't a fictional character anymore so why am I dreading the separation so much instead of the real threat that is the brainwashing I will get when I'm in ROOT. The ROOT training was 'a' reason but a very minor one. Not as big as being away from him. I felt a tug on my stomach and I thought I was going into the mindscape but instead the pull was outwards towards the compound. All of a sudden, all my distress and anxiety was replaced by a burning sensation in my stomach and the woman just dropped me. I tried to run towards the house and before the woman could try to stop me the ANBU were here. A cat mask teenager with long purple hair who I think was Yugao picked me up and brought me back to the nursery where I found Naruto bawling on the floor. I ran towards him and he latched onto me and cried.

He calmed down after sometime, by then the ANBU were gone, or were hiding again. When he told me that he was looking for me and then his tummy started hurting I knew he felt the same thing I did. I pulled his shirt up and yup there was the seal, clearly visible. I pulled up my shirt and I had the same seal on me.

This evening just confirmed a few things to me, 1) me and Naruto have one half each of kurama in us 2) Danzo wants at least one host 3) Hiruzen doesn't want to give either 4) our seals are somehow connected and we know when the other is in trouble (how cliché twins with sixth sense).

The ANBU took over the duties of the caretakers after that. Neko-san would wake us up in the morning and take us to the yard to do some stretching exercises and then we would run around the yard. I wasn't a very active person in my previous life, few in the modern world are but here I had an overabundance of energy and that is a given because I am an Uzumaki, a jinchuuriki and a toddler. Naruto seems to have even more energy than me. He just never gets tired. Another difference that I have noticed between me and Naruto is that he heals faster, while the scrapes and cuts a toddler can get while running around aren't that much to begin with, he heals without any scarring by the day's end while for me it take 1-2 days which doesn't make much sense to me given that his advanced healing was credited to kurama and Uzumaki heritage and I have both of them too. It's another item for the list of thing I need to figure out I guess. After the chaos in the yard we would clean up, have breakfast and then another ANBU same (turtle) would sit down and teach us to read and write. I want to check weather my Uzumaki heritage and previous life experience as a programmer will help me in learning fuinjutsu or not so I pay extra attention to this part but Naruto just can't sit still for more than a few minutes. I have to persuade him after every little while to continue with the lesson. After that we have lunch and are left on our own to play and roam around the house. Ji-ji comes every evening. He reads us a story or tells one himself. The stories and the material are very basic (what do you expect, they are for one year olds) but since my grasp on the language isn't as strong as I would like I'm ok with it for now. Ji-ji stays for dinner sometimes but leaves just before it most days and after cleaning up we are put to bed.

Our second birthday is in less than a month and if I remember correctly then Naruto was moved to his apartment when he was 4 so that means either the 2 years we will stay hear or at the orphanage. The orphanage seems likelier as the ANBU team we are engaging could be put to use better elsewhere and the seals don't need any more monitoring.

I'm not expecting much from the orphanage but let's hope for the best.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:The first chapter got great response. Thank you so much. now let's try for double digits!**

 **Also, can anyone please help me writing a good enough summary? Please...**

 **Please enjoy, favorite, follow and review... Seriously review.**

 **I mean it REVIEW PLEASE.**

 **Even short ones will do**

 **OH! and yeah i don't really own Naruto or any of it's characters...**

 **I do own the OC's though soooo there...**

 ***AWKWARD***

* * *

"Ne ne Rashi, aren't you excited? Oh man! We are gonna make so many friends. And we'll play games with them all day. And and we'll not read any books."

"Reading books is necessary Naruto. That is how we cure your idiocy."

"Humph, you can use your big words all you want, but you can't make me read any more books"

"Listen to your brother Naruto, reading books makes you smart."

"Oh yeah? Then how come I haven't seen you read any huh?"

"He has a library in his office which has more books than you have seen in your entire life Naruto."

"And I read the books when I was young like you both."

"When was that? Like a thousand years ago?"

"I am not that old you brat!"

"And I am not an idiot!"

"Exactly! That is why you were running with you underwear on you head yesterday and then you ran straight into a wall."

"I TOLD YOU IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

"Still doesn't explain why the underwear was on your head in the first place."

"Boys behave, if you act like this the matron will punish you and nobody will be your friend."

""HAI!""

You must have understood what is going on by now. A few months ago ji-ji started taking us out to the village once a week. He would take us to different places each day like a park, the Hokage monument (Naruto asked who those people are? when he said the Hokage and that he was one of them, Naruto laughed in his face. He still doesn't believe it), the Ichiraku ramen stand (and yes people I don't know if it's an Uzumaki thing or not but it is awesome), his office, the main markets, he even took us to an out of the way place at the edge of the Nara forest and the Uchiha land (remember the place where Shisui jumped from? This place is a bit ahead along the Naka River, so that he would have eventually ended up here if his body was swept away in the river) it's a perfect spot for river fishing and camping. Naruto and I really look forward to these trips. Today's trip however, is different because he said we are going to live in a new place. He mentioned 'kids our age' and 'lots of friends' and Naruto was sold.

When the anime says that there is a giant wall surrounding konoha and that konoha is a **village.** Everybody thinks that konoha is a slightly big town with lots of buildings and a tall red wall surrounding it. They couldn't be more wrong. The walled off area is so large that the farmers inside konoha and the dear herders of the Nara clan don't actually have to go outside it. The huge district of the uchiha clan with a large portion of the Naka River, the woods surrounding it and the numerous huge training grounds are all inside the walls. The few trips we've made with ji-ji are not nearly enough to see the entirety of konoha. The civilized area itself is too large for that. The Hokage monument faces north straight to the largest and the main gate. We lived a few hundred meters away from that gate in the woods outside the wall. The orphanage we were taken to was not near the walls on the outskirts contrary to popular (fanfiction community's) belief. The orphanage was behind the Hokage tower near the monument's cliff wall. Again a logical placement, do you know why? Just like the academy is next to the tower, the most secure administrative building, the orphanages are near the monument which also serves as the emergency shelter. The reasoning being that the _king_ is at the most secure place.

Yup I totally ripped off Asuma's dialogue.

Moving on. The orphanage doesn't look that bad from the outside. The building isn't brand new like the northern blocks (those are the one that were rebuild after the kyuubi attack). But it isn't a rickety rundown place like I thought it was going to be. There is a large yard in front of the two story building, some children playing there. Naruto is barely containing himself now. He is going to burst any moment. I can tell by how red his face is. Guessing by ji-ji's chuckling he can see it too.

"These are your two new young wards Fuyuki-san. The paperwork has already been done."

"Of course, Hokage-sama."

Hmm, the woman is quite old. Not as old ji-ji, she looks to be in her sixties while he must be almost as old as konoha itself. Well maybe a few years younger, ji-ji is of the first generation born inside konoha. That would make him almost 80 years old. How the hell is an 80 year old man capable of fighting against Orochimaru? Hell all three of his student must be in their fifties. Wow, these old people really are awesome huh? Anyways, the matron Fuyuki-san doesn't really look at us at all and I know that our lives at the orphanage is not going to be easy. Well, it was going to start sometime. Now is as good a time as any.

"Ayumi get these two settled in." she asked one of the staff members standing there. She is a young girl maybe in her late teens, average looks with dark brown hair and eyes and pale skin. "So, what are your names?" she asked. Her voice is really soft and smooth. She must make a lot of guys all flustered and nervous. She isn't the most beautiful or anything, all things considered. But she has this yamato-nedishiko* feel about her.

"Hi! My name is Naruto and this is my brother Arashi. We're both twins and we both look exactly the same. Look look!" We have always been together. From his perspective, we have been together our entire lives. I don't know why? But the fact that we look the same, fascinates him so much. And that doesn't make sense. He should be used to this. He has been living with me since day one. He does this introduction routine every time. He tells our names and then asks people to look how we both look the same, standing beside me grinning like a fool. It's kind of funny actually. Whenever he does that I have the utmost bored expression on my face. It entertains the watchers I guess because people laugh and smile and really like our routine. And she does too. Hey what works, works. She glomped us, squealing about how she could just eat both of us whole. I guess she is the doting big sister type. "Well my name is Ayumi and you can call me Ayumi nee-chan. Here we are, this will be your room. When they come back at evening, you can meet your roommates. Those two bunks in the corner are empty so go take one each."

"The upper one! I want the upper one. Can I have the upper one? Can I? Can I? Pleeeaaaseee"

"Hai hai, you can have the upper one Naruto."

"Yeah! You're the best Rashi."

"Of course I am."

"Ok ok settle down both of you. Now when dinner is ready. There will be a loud bell ringing. When that happens come down to the dining hall for dinner ok? Don't miss it"

""Haaaii!""

* * *

We spent the rest of the evening exploring the orphanage. The upper level had all the rooms where everyone lived. Around 30 rooms with 6-8 members in each room. If I had to make a guess I'd say the comfortable capacity of this place to be around 150-200 children. The rest of the place was pretty standard the large dining hall and the bathroom are on the lower level. The yard in front of the building is large enough for everyone to play around. There is a similar ground behind the building as well but this one has targets boards and straw dummies setup here and there. This must be the ground that academy student use to train. Huh, I thought the orphans were given their own apartments when they joined the academy. Maybe it was just Naruto.

While we were roaming around, the head matron Fuyuki-san happened upon us. I thought she might do something like glare or sneer or give us unnecessary warnings or chores or something but she just asked what we were doing. And not in a bad way either. When I said that we were exploring she just asked us to not to make noise inside the building and to come for dinner at time and left. She was awfully kind while speaking to us as well. Now that I think about it, whenever we went to konoha with ji-ji we were never glared at or were there any whispers about us. Till now I chalked it up to the hokage being with us and that the people might not recognize us (we were in hiding for about two years). But this is just weird, either the matron is understanding and she gets that it wasn't our fault or she doesn't know. Given the length of the conversation ji-ji had with her I doubt that she wasn't informed. That means that she's OK with it.

Dinner was OK, it was actually pretty good considering that it was orphanage-canteen food. After that we went to our rooms and met our new roommates. Our roommates are two boys and two girls. Interesting and varied people.

Yama, a cliché gentle giant. Short black hair and beady eyes. He is 4 years old but looks like he's 8 or 10 already. Very friendly. He and Naruto instantly hit it off.

Goro, he is a little like Kiba and Naruto, hyperactive and cheerful. He is also very prideful. Him and Yama are the same age and have been friends for a long time. I'm sure him and Naruto are going to butt heads a lot in the future. Already he doesn't like the fact that Naruto is so chummy with his best friend.

Mitsuko, 3 year old Mistuko is shy and polite. She gave a quite introduction, said if we needed any help we could come to her and went to her bed.

The person who caught my attention the most was the other girl. Why? Well because she had light blue hair. It looks like the hair dyes cosplayers used. I had completely forgotten about the weird hair-colors.

I've been staring at her for a while now. Huh…. Yugao has purple hair she didn't get such a reaction from me. Maybe it was because she wore a mask.

Everybody is really quite now, they are looking at me. Oh god! I've been staring too long. Say something. SAY SOMETHING!

"Hi, my name is Arashi. Your hair is really pretty" (LAME!)

"Thank you. I'm Narumi"

She doesn't look angry but the guys are looking weirdly at me. For now I think the crisis has been averted.

* * *

Life in an orphanage isn't as bad as I thought it would be (I mean bad in the Naruto way). The staff don't discriminate against us, to the children we are just regular orphans. We are one of them.

It's been three weeks in the orphanage. The first week our roommates taught us the inner workings of the children's politics.

There are 6-8 members per room. Let's call each room a team. Some people have friends who live in other rooms. These people introduce their roommates to other room's residents and alliances are formed. Similarly if you don't like someone, your entire room hates their entire room's guts, and thus rivalries are formed.

Our room's biggest rival is a room two doors down the hall from us. They are the local bullies. They don't do it daily but if they ask someone to give up their dessert or to leave the swings because they want to have it, people do. We are special cases as we have Yama. Somebody has a problem, we push Yama to the front. He doesn't actually do anything but children get scared of him really quick. Then we have Goro, who will die before submitting to anyone. The biggest reason for them targeting us is because their leader Kenichi thinks Narumi's hair is too weird. You know where this is going right? Amongst young children, whenever a boy teases a girl, the boy is actually attracted to her but doesn't understand that and therefore thinks that the girl is making him feel weird. When I asked why we were rivals and was told that he suddenly started teasing her all the time, I realized that my palm wasn't enough and therefore I faceplanted. -_-

Ji-ji still comes to meet us every day. He doesn't actually come inside, that would raise questions amongst our peers. One of the staff members tell us there is someone there outside to meet us and then we go out to meet him. Our trips to konoha with him continue. At first we were spending entire afternoons and evenings with him. Then Naruto said he wanted to play with his new friends more. So, he cut the trips short to 3 or 4 hours a day. When our roommates ask who is it that takes us out daily I say it's an old man who found us but he's too old to take care of us himself.

* * *

Everything was good for the first two months. Then somebody started rumors about me and Naruto. Rumors that are impossible to be spread here without adult interference. Rumors that me and Naruto called the kyuubi on the day it attacked.

On the day kyuubi attacked, the damage to the city wasn't that bad. A few blocks in the northern part of konoha were destroyed some others were a little damaged. The loss in terms of lives though was too big. Many shinobi died to keep the fox out of the city. The orphanages in konoha are filled with children of those shinobi and kunoichi. Shinobi and kunoichi who left their children in the shelters, telling them to stay safe and then never came back. When the children heard that we might be the reason that a demon killed their parents, things turned bad. Things became worse when our roommates found out why everyone was against us all of a sudden.

They wanted to know why everyone was glaring at them. Why we all were being isolated by others. When they confronted some of their friends, they found out about the rumors. Me and Naruto were in our room when Goro stormed in there. He looked furious. I thought that Kenichi's group had done something again, so I tried to calm him down. I went up to him and said "What did they do now?" The response I got wasn't the one I was expecting. He punched me in the face.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing, huh?" Naruto was standing protectively in front of me.

"When were you going to tell us about it?"

At that time we didn't know what the rumors were. We didn't even know that there were any rumors.

"Huh? Tell what?"

"That you called the kyuubi to attack konoha that day" huh?

"What are you talking about? What is a kyuubi?"

Oh! Naruto hasn't read or heard the story about the kyuubi yet. Hell even I haven't heard that story. It happened two years ago. I doubt it is going to be anywhere but in recent history. So it is safe to play dumb.

"What are you talking about Goro? ….aww man! My nose is bleeding."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

"I'm not lying Goro. I don't know what you are talking about. What is this kyuubi?"

"You don't know? HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW?"

"WELL I DON'T. YOU HAPPY NOW? HUH? NOW WILL YOU TELL ME WHAT IT IS OR ARE WE GONNA KEEP YELLING AT EACH OTHER?"

Mitsuko to the rescue! "The kyuubi no kitsune is a giant fox demon that attacked konoha two years ago. It killed many people that day including mine and Goro's parents."

Hmm, there's an idea!

"We were living outside konoha before we were brought to the orphanage. Also if the demon attacked two years ago, that means that either we were not even born yet or we were just little babies. We are two years old you know."

"THEN WHY IS EVERYONE SAYING THAT YOU CALLED IT?"

Here we go again. "HOW SHOULD I KNOW? I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT WAS

UNTIL YOU TOLD ME JUST NOW!"

"STOP YELLING! WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Great now Naruto is crying too.

We yelled at each other for a while. Yama was watching from a corner, Mitsuko and Narumi were crying silently. By the time Fuyuki-san came and broke up the fight. There was a big crowd standing outside our room, watching the show. We were given bathroom cleaning duty for a week as punishment. Apparently, when Fuyuki-san said don't make noise she meant to tell us that people are actually punished to make scene while indoors.

* * *

It took a lot of convincing from Naruto the next day but Goro eventually accepted that we had nothing to do with it. Mitsuko was the smart type, so she listened to reason when I said that we were too young to do anything at the time of the attack. Naruto took care the rest of it. The whole therapeutic conversation isn't exaggerated at all, he really can convince people regarding anything. He's like the perfect salesman. The fact that he is so blindingly positive is also a big help.

The issue was resolved, but there was still some anger and animosity left. Even if he believed that we had nothing to do with it and I had nothing against guy either, we had said some hurtful things during our yelling match. But time heals everything and it did. Over the days me and Goro got over it and things were ok. In our room that is. In the orphanage we six had become the pariahs. It was bound to happen to us, they didn't had to get involved in this.

All of this got me thinking. Now I know why Naruto was given his own apartment at such a young age. In cannon I wasn't there to convince Mitsuko or to yell at Goro. Naruto would have gotten cornered four on one. Here I convinced Mitsuko and defended against Goro long enough for him to calm down. Without me Naruto would have been alone in the orphanage while everyone blaming him for their parent's death. But that can't be right. Naruto never knew why he was hated, he didn't had a single clue. Here he has a huge one. The staff is completely fair to us but can it be that someone is trying to play a Mizuki on us? But what changed? How can my presence influence someone to mention our relation to kyuubi to a child?

When we talked to ji-ji he assured us we had nothing to do with the kyuubi. According to him our parents died fighting it and we were too close to the kyuubi when we were born so we had to be kept away from everyone to make sure that we weren't sick. It is plausible enough as an explanation but again, there was no such thing in cannon. Meaning the rumors were a new thing. Either in cannon the rumors were about something else or there were no rumors and there was some other reason behind him living alone.

Either way, here we are, instead of Naruto being isolated and bullied all six of us were. Aside from Kenichi's group, others just avoided us and gave us the cold shoulder. Kenichi and his minions actively antagonized us. Him and Naruto even got into a fist fight which turned into a full out gang war when Goro and I got involved and his entire room entered the fray as well. Our two rooms got to clean the yards, bathroom and the hallways for the next month, but I'm proud that I gave Kenichi a pink eye and broke one of his goon's teeth….(I'm proud of beating up a kid * _sigh*_ …. Mine is indeed a sad existence). Our rivalry became passive after that. The rumors died down after a while, but other's behavior towards us never changed. Kenichi's group tried to bully us many times. Naruto started pranking their group in retaliation. They pranked us back. The rest of us somehow got involved and it turned into a prank war, which would have been fun if they didn't always had witnesses claiming it was us who did everything while nobody took our side so we got punished most of the time. The way things are going, we all will have to move out into our own apartments which can be done in mine and Naruto's case but in the other's case not so much. Compared to them we are VIPs. They are just orphans. Yes their parents gave their lives for the village but so did many other's.

After taking our sides and being the outcasts with us, if we leave them dry while moving away to more comfortable lives ourselves, now that would be a major dick move. I guess there is the next problem I have to solve.

* * *

 ***I MEAN IT PEOPLE POST A REVIEW.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:For just another self-insert in a massive crowd of self-inserts, the responses have been great. Thank you**

 **i just saw the anime episodes after the Naruto vs Sasuke fight ones and I saw a few scenes I might be using (altered here and there) in the future chapters (none in this one yet).**

 **I'm looking for a beta reader for this fic. If anybody is interested, PM me.**

 **Also, can anyone please help me writing a good enough summary? Please...**

 **The next chapter might be here by the end of the week.**

 **Enjoy, review, favorite and follow.**

 **Disclaimer: I wish I owned Naruto but alas I don't.**

* * *

*Fwish*Fwish*

*Plonk*

*Shakishakishakishaki*

*Drrrrrip*

*Fwish**Fwish*

*Scratch**Scratch*

"Stop scratching or you'll get a rash."

"But I can't help it!"

"AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT!?"

"Hey I didn't do it."

*stare*

"Ok maybe it was my fault, but how could I know that it would backfire this badly?"

*stare**stare**stare**stare**stare**stare*

"Ok maybe I didn't think it all through. But you all helped me do it too."

*sigh**sigh**sigh**sigh**sigh*

We six are on the bathroom cleaning duty. Again. What did we do this time? Well I'm glad you asked.

It has been almost a year and the prank war between Kenichi's and our room is still going on. The pranks are usually small like tripping others or spreading glitter or glue on their beds, but every once in a while a big prank comes along which backfires on the person doing it in a spectacular way and lots of innocent bystanders are swept in our mess too.

This particular time Naruto came up with the idea of mixing itching powder in their detergent. What he didn't think was that the after Kenichi's group, everyone who washed their clothes in the laundry room machines (including us) will suffer the same fate as them. When it was found out that we are the reason that everybody's clothes are all itchy, Fuyuki-san was livid. I have never heard her yell before, it was terrifying. We were lucky we knew about the itching powder and realized what was going on before washing our underwear. That wouldn't have been good. I saw what others were suffering through. *shudder*

"What?" Goro asked

"I was thinking about those who washed their underwear"

"I'm trying really hard to forget about that. It was painful to watch. " *shudder*

"HEY, MOVE YOUR HANDS NOT YOUR MOUTHS."

Oh yeah, that. The sweet, innocent and bubbly Narumi has developed a sadistic task master side ever since bathroom cleaning duty became more or less ours permanently.

The cleaning lady has become a good friend of ours, so that's something I guess. She has to clean up the occasional mess created by our pranks and we do most of her work as punishments the rest of the time. She lets us use the cleaning supplies for our pranks if we need them.

The itching powder fiasco isn't the only prank gone wrong either. In both ours and team Kenichi's cases, there are a few times when we attempted to do something bigger than our regular day jokes and every time they all backfire on us. Like the time Naruto polished their room's floor with floor wax but while trying to get out of the room he slipped himself and flew through the window out of the building (He fell from the upper level and only injury he got was a few bruises). Or the time they tried to set rats free in our room but dropped the box carrying said rats on themselves on their way.

Naruto doesn't really need to try to setup a prank to make a mess really. Here in the orphanage, the staff teaches us basic literacy and how to do all of our chores. When Ayumi nee-chan was teaching us how to do laundry he somehow ended up putting glue with his clothes. Why he had a bottle of glue on himself at that time nobody knows. What came out of the machine was a wet, sticky and bubbly glob. He even managed to spill ink on himself and dye his hair black once when Fuyuki-san was teaching us to write our names in calligraphy. I called him Menma till the ink came off. Nobody got that joke except me but I laughed so hard that day, I burst a blood vessel in my nose.

* * *

The rest of the orphans still avoid associating with us. They don't go out of their way to stay away from us and if our neighbors need anything they come ask for it but nobody likes spending any time with or around us. The silver lining is that their behavior is not because of any rumors or hearsay, but because we are the trouble children now. You never know when a huge mess will start around us and usually people around us are not safe. For the same reason, team Kenichi's support dropped too, and before they knew it, they were outcasts just like us. Once they were in the same boat as us their bullying and teasing lessened a lot. Oh we still pranked each other hard, but there was no malicious intent behind those pranks now.

Fuyuki-san amongst all this was going insane. In canon, Naruto was alone and cornered and therefore the Hokage felt the need to move him out, here I think Fuyuki-san will kick all of us out before any of that. She's more irritable and snaps really fast these days and everybody else blames us for it. Once I noticed it, I decided to find out when her birthday was and proposed a temporary alliance to arrange a party. What I didn't know was that she was a retired kunoichi and that whenever we did a prank it was because she let us. When she saw that we are collaborating on something she thought it was another prank but this one was not targeted on each other. She though our target was the rest of the orphanage and she couldn't allow it. She shut it all down but when she found out that we had other allies and that what our intentions were she was ok with it. She has been in a better mood ever since.

* * *

Our fourth birthday is approaching in a few weeks and that is the day we will finally be considered old enough to go out of the orphanage boundaries alone. Anyone bellow the age of 4 isn't allowed to go out alone, it hasn't ever stopped Naruto but that is the rule. Naruto is the one who arranges all our required material and he always comes through. I haven't the faintest idea when or where he brings them from but no matter what you want he'll get it. Paint, buckets of glue, glitter, floor wax, he even got a giant bag of flour once (I thought he stole it from the pantry but since no one complained, either they never found out that a bag was missing or he got it from somewhere else). How he does that, from where he gets it or when he goes out to get them we have no clue whatsoever. Maybe I'll find out once I'm able to go out legally.

The fourth birthday is also important because that is when Naruto moved to his apartment (I think so). I don't see that happening here, other than because of a freak accident. Even if it does happen, Naruto will not leave our friends here and I'll be with him on that.

* * *

Apart from me and Naruto there is one other boy who was born on the day of the kyuubi attack (konoha is a big place we weren't the only ones born that day. Most just died because of the corrosive chakra). There's also an older boy who was born on October 10th. There is never a celebration because other kid's parents died on the same day.

On that day ji-ji took us to our camping site and taught us how to catch fish, start a campfire and then to cook the fish on the fire. The light pollution here is almost non-existent and therefore the night sky is just breath taking. That night ji-ji asked a question that I had seen coming a long time ago.

"What do you both think about shinobi?"

"They are awesome. They can do all sorts of cool stuff like making fireballs and fight with cool swords. And and I see all those shinobi jumping around on the rooftops whenever I'm outside the orphanage. They can do all this really cool stuff. How do they do that ji-ji? I even saw this guy….." once you get used to it you can tune out Naruto's rambling as background noise.

While Naruto was rambling off ji-ji quietly asked me the same question. "And what about you Arashi-kun? What do you think?"

"Like what do I think about them? Or would I like to be one?"

"Both."

"Hmm. They are cool. Was Neko-san a shinobi?"

"Yes she is."

"And Same-san?"

"Him too."

"And you are the Hokage."

"And I am the Hokage."

"So you are like, the Boss of all the shinobi?"

"All the shinobi and kunoichi in this village."

"There are shinobi outside the village too?"

"There are other villages like ours. They have their own shinobi."

"Wow….. I would really like to see them some day."

"Well some of these villages are friendly to us some are not."

"Really? That's sad."

"It is."

"So like what does a shinobi do exactly? Like they can do a lot cool stuff but …. Why?"

"Well everybody's reasons are different but in konoha we have something called the WILL OF FIRE."

"I've heard that before. What is it?"

"When a konoha shinobi fights her enemies to protect her and her people, a sudden power emerges from them. Now it is not an actual power but it is a feeling which makes you feel strong, like you can do anything, defeat the enemy no matter how strong they are. This fire is inside all of us shinobi or not. The shinobi of konoha fight to protect this fire and in return the will of fire protects them. They fight to protect this beautiful place from the world outside. So that the people inside can be happy. So that their friends and their families can be safe."

"And if they stop fighting?"

"Well the world outside is not a happy place. If the shinobi of konoha don't protect her then the rest of the world will destroy the peace we have in here."

"Hmm. The shinobi are pretty important huh?"

"That they are my boy. That they are….. So? Would you like to be one?"

"Naruto seems pretty eager to be one and it does sound pretty dangerous…"

"He will need somebody to get him out of trouble when he inevitably gets into it."

"So I guess I'll have to be one as well. How does one become a shinobi anyway?"

"There is the ninja academy for that. They teach children everything about being a shinobi."

"So when do we start?"

"Well the age for academy admission is 6 so in two years."

"Do we need anything to prepare for that?"

"Heh. You seem pretty eager too."

"Well if I'm going to do it then why half-ass it. Why not go all the way to the top?"

"You wish to be the hokage?"

"Whoa! No no no no no. I was just saying that if I'm going to be a shinobi then I'm going to be a good one."

"Hahaha. Alright good, good that ambition will take you far. Well it's getting late. So let's break camp and take you both back to Fuyuki-san"

""Haaaai!""

* * *

The talk about academy made me realize a new issue. Whether or not the rest of our team will become shinobi? And even if they do, then the only person in our batch will be Narumi. The others, barring someone staying back will be our seniors. I can see Goro wanting to be a shinobi, Yama looks intimidating but he is a peace loving guy, so it might be a little tricky for him. Mitsuko is really quite and she is essentially a bookworm. Not in the sense that she is only good at bookish knowledge, she can be very clever at devising elaborate plans and can scare the shit out of anybody if she wants to (despite being a 5 year old girl), but she doesn't seem to like any kind of activity. Narumi is much like Naruto except she has a sadistic dark side that can be really scary. If they put their minds to it I know that they all can become pretty good shinobi but I don't know anything about their canon versions. If they are successful, then that would mean more allies in the future. But what if they were supposed to be no name civilians and I influenced them to be shinobi only to find out later on that they couldn't handle it and died or worse (there are worse fates for shinobi and kunoichi than dying). Will I be able to deal with the guilt of the fact that I may have ruined their chance at perfectly normal lives? I am already worried about the consequences of changing Naruto's back story. Will this prove to be too much meddling? Should I let them decide on their own or try to convince them to follow the shinobi's path? Already Goro and Yama have started in the civilian academy. But during the first two years you are allowed to switch. If Mitsuko is to join academy then she will have to decide quickly too as she will have to join in the coming summer. Narumi has the same amount of time as we do. If we are to join the academy and they don't, then I can see us moving out of the orphanage without them. I'm not worried about them now, things are better than they were. Even if we leave them here, they have good friends in Kenichi's group. Kenichi is starting to realize his crush on Narumi, so he is easing up on the teasing and the bullying. Without Naruto exciting Goro, my vindictive side adding oil to the fire and with Kenichi calming down the pranks will stop too. But do I really want that? Do I want to give up the friends I have made that easily? I guess the real question about this whole mess is whether or not I can afford to be that selfish?

* * *

I have decided to check the other's opinion on shinobi and go from there. Of course going by the relative urgency Goro and Yama come first.

It is early November right now and it has started to get really chilly. Goro is in our room doing his homework. The difference between Naruto and him is that Goro has a serious side he can switch to. He is also not as big a sore loser as Naruto. While Naruto has a **sincere** side he is a 24/7 goof. Goro is a pretty simple person to talk to. He is a straight forward guy and he doesn't like going around in circles so I guess I'll just ask him. "Ne, Goro?"

"Hmm?" Boy he really is busy huh?

"What do you think of the shinobi?"

"Shinobi? Where did that come from?"

"Well I always thought that you would like to be one but you joined the civilian school and that got me thinking."

"Well when I was younger I wanted to be one but then I changed my mind."

"Why?"

"Yama."

"Huh?"

"Yama is a really peaceful and calm guy. You know that. Despite how he looks, he doesn't like to fight. If I became a shinobi and he didn't, we will start spending time away from each other, we will have to find new friends and then we won't have much time for each other. If being a shinobi means sacrificing my friendship with Yama, then I don't want to be one."

"Hmm, well I guess that makes sense."

"What got you so worried?"

"Well it's the same case for me. Naruto wants to be a shinobi, if he becomes one he'll need me to have his back. If we both became shinobi and you guys don't, then I don't know what to do?"

"Ok, look at it this way. Naruto chose to be a shinobi, did he ever ask you?"

"No, but…"

"Well, he made his choice so why don't you get to make your own choice too."

"In that case, you changed your choice for Yama."

"Yeah, but he never asked me to, I did it myself. Changing my mind about being a shinobi was my choice too."

"Huh? You are actually smart."

"I know! Now be a good kid and run along, let senpai work."

"Aaaaand you ruined it."

"RUN AWAY YOU BRAT!"

* * *

Yama

For the first month and a half we lived here, I never saw or heard Yama say anything. After the first week, I just assumed that he was mute. That was till he spoke. I don't exactly remember what it was or what was going on because the shock of him speaking was too much for me at that time. Me and Naruto were just standing there gobsmacked, with our jaws on the floor, eyes wide, pointing at him, while the others just waved it off and said the 'he does that from time to time.'

Over the last two years, I learned that he actually enjoys when people are surprised when they find out that he can in fact speak.

"Hey big guy."

"Hn"

Yup, he grunts like a brute too.

"Why did you join civilian school and not ninja academy?"

"I don't like to fight."

"And what about Goro?"

"What about him?"

"He wanted to become a shinobi didn't he?"

"Yes he did. Then he found out that I didn't wanted to be one so he decided he didn't wanted to be one either."

"You know?"

"Of course I know. I'm the first one he talked about it to."

"Wow, you guys really are almost like brothers huh?"

"Yep, you having trouble choosing?"

"Well, there is my brother, on the other hand there are you guys."

"You gotta choose who is more important to you then."

"It's really hard."

"I know."

"Anyways, see you later."

"Hn"

* * *

Mitsuko

Sometimes I feel like Mitsuko is a Nara. She doesn't like to speak or do anything really, give her a book and a corner to sit and read and she is happy. She doesn't do it often but if she needs to, she can be terrifyingly clever. She can predict what someone will do under what circumstances if she has met them a few times. She can make elaborate plans that are easy to follow and almost always succeed. Many times she knows what you are going to say before you say it. Many people think of her as a mere bookworm, but we know that if she left the book and got up to do something she gets things done no matter the cost. When Mitsuko says something we follow her word without failure. It was one of the first things I learned here. Never question Mitsuko's orders. She might appear a bit cold and cut off sometimes but she helps people whenever she can and doesn't shy off or laze off on them. If you need her, she has got your back.

Right now she was sitting in the yard under a tree, reading a book. It's her outside spot. Earlier people used to fight to sit there, after she started sitting there regularly nobody ever bothered her, they just gave up. That is when I realized that she is not treated like that by our roommates only but the entire orphanage treats her like a wise elder, if she says she wants something she gets it, but she asks so very rarely. That is the thing that scares me the most about Mitsuko, if she wanted to she could be like the queen of this place.

"Mitsu nee!" Naruto asked her once if he could call her nee-chan once, after that he, I and Narumi started calling her Mitsu-nee. Goro said he wanted to be called nii-sama or senpai, but we all just impassively stared at him for a while and then he got all depressed, curled up in a ball on his bed. It was the most anime like scene that has ever happened ever since I came here.

"Hmm?" I sat down beside her and got comfortable. "Can I ask you something?"

"OK"

"Umm, are you going to join shinobi academy or civilian one?"

"Hmm, let me guess. Naruto wants to be a shinobi and Goro and Yama went to Civilian school. You're worried you'll lose your friends."

"Yeah" See? We never talked about shinobi before and she already knows the entirety of it. Well almost entirety.

"Even if I join the shinobi academy. I will be your senpai and not in your class."

"You'll always be that Mitsu-nee."

"Not if I went to civvie school. If I became a civilian and you became a shinobi then you will be considered an adult before you are a teenager but I will have to wait till I'm sixteen."

"I guess that's true."

"So? Do you want me to be your senpai?"… I know that she meant it in the most genuine way….. but I can't help but think of it in the dirty sense…. GOD SHE IS 5….. man this adult mind and child body mix is really creepy.

"Well?" "Ahhh Ahem. Mmmmm yeah I would like that if you were there to help me. But being a shinobi is serious and dangerous you can't become one just because I wanted a senpai."

"So you don't want me to be a shinobi?"

"I didn't say that. I said that you should choose what you want and not change your choice because of me."

"Then I will choose what I want, why are you so worried about what I choose?"

"Mitsu-neeeeeeee"

"Look, the way I see it, whether we choose to be shinobi or not doesn't affect your choice. So why are you so worried about it?"

*sigh*

"I'll see you later Mitsu-nee."

"You're overthinking it Rashi. Keep things simple."

"Sure"

* * *

Narumi

Narumi is like Naruto in many ways and in many other ways she is his complete opposite. She has his blinding, unshakable optimism, his ability to cheer anyone up and his obsession with a single color (her color is blue). But unlike Naruto, Narumi isn't bull headed. She doesn't have his never give up attitude, his absolute belief in his own abilities neither does she trust people that easily. Also unlike Naruto, Narumi isn't a mouth-breathing idiot. Now, I have nothing against Naruto, I don't really care about canon Naruto but this Naruto is my brother but I will fight the world for him. Like many people who read/saw the story, I know he has unlimited potential, with proper guidance even the sky can't limit him, but the guy is **slow.** There is a very popular saying that, 'you can lead a horse to the lake, but the horse will have to drink the water itself', in Naruto's case you take him to the lake, you dunk his head in, you pull him out when he starts to suffocate, you let him breath, then you dunk his head in again, and then you repeat the cycle till after several times he will think 'hey I have a great idea! I am already thirsty and this guy is trying to drown me anyway. So why don't I just drink the water. Oh man I'm so smart.'

On the other hand, if you can explain something physically, he will get it instantly. I taught him arithmetic by counting steps while he climbed up or down on a staircase.

Hmm. I got that idea from a movie about children with autism...o_o

Narumi and Naruto were playing in the yard when I approached them. When I heard what Naruto was talking about I saw that Naruto had done my work already.

"…. And and there was also this guy who threw a kunai knife straight up in the air but then he threw some more knives and they hit each other in the air and they all hit the target on the tree in front of him. It was so cool. I'm so going to learn how to do that. When I join the academy I'll be the greatest ninja ever. You'll come too right?"

"Of course I will. You will be there and Arashi-kun too. He will be there right?"

"Yeah, he will. He and I will be the best ninja together."

Huh. Seems like the decisions have been made. Goro and Yama are going to be civvies and there is nothing I can do to change that. I am not sure whether I want to change that.

You can't tell Mitsuko to do anything, Mitsuko tells you what to do. So she'll do what she feels is right for her.

Finally, Narumi might be coming with us.

* * *

 **AN: I feel like the dialogues are a bit awkward. Please tell me if you feel the same way. I'm not changing these but I promise I will try to improve in the future chapters.**

 **Also I'm going to make tons of Chuck Norris or Rajnikant style jokes about Mitsuko. If anybody has any original jokes like that, they can contribute. I will give credits and everything.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: There is a poll on my profile regarding the team placements. Please see if there is any option you like. If you want something that isn't in the options, write it in a review. One maybe two chapters will cover the academy days (that is the time for the poll to be decided) after that we will start the genin days.**

 **Also, can anyone please help me writing a good enough summary? Please...**

 **Enjoy, Favorite, Follow and Review.**

 **Disclaimer: Kishimoto didn't wanted to share so Naruto sadly isn't mine.**

* * *

Narumi, I and Naruto were running along the cliff wall at the base of the hokage monument. Well by now Naruto was running, we were just trying our hardest to keep up.

I had asked ji-ji what we could do to prepare for the academy and his advice to me was to start with light physical exercises and build up on them. We thought for a starting point running a single lap around konoha and then doing 25 push-ups, sit-ups and squats each was good enough. Any delusions we had about running laps around konoha were destroyed on day one by the time we reached the end of the cliff wall of the monument and at the point where the actual wall started. Konoha really was too big to run around on our first day. While it might be possible for Naruto, I had no doubt that me and Narumi will not be capable of it for quite some time. So for now we had decided to run twice across the length of the monument cliff. Even then, it was difficult for us to keep up with Naruto for long. He just never got tired. What baffled me though, was that I was his twin and therefore had the same genes. I was also the jinchuuriki, just like him. So theoretically I should have had the stamina too. I had more than normal stamina, poor Narumi was the one who struggled the most but Naruto still had more stamina than me. I had a theory regarding the difference in our physical capabilities but no definitive proof for it, so I had no clue what was causing it yet.

We performed our routine twice a day while gradually increasing the number of repetitions. It was slow but I could see the affect it was having on us.

I had asked ji-ji about chakra but he said that the academy instructors unlock it and it was unsafe to do it too early. I know that clan children get theirs unlocked much before the academy, meaning that ji-ji was lying but why? One reason could be that unlocking mine and Naruto's chakra isn't going to be a nice experience. Another could be that due to the amount of chakra in our bodies it could be dangerous. I needed to know how the chakra was unlocked in the first place, that might give us a clue as to what might be the risks ji-ji is trying to avoid.

If my theory regarding the difference in the physical capabilities between me and Naruto was correct then that would mean a whole new side of ninja arts. I also really wanted to learn fuinjutsu. I had so many ideas, now that our training for being shinobi was going to start, I wanted to use those, but using them would raise questions. For attempting to learn fuinjutsu, my calligraphy needs to be perfect. Although, if I were to start practicing calligraphy suddenly, I can't say that I want to learn fuinjutsu, as that would raise a question, who told you? No matter what I do, it would raise similar questions. Therefore, most of my time was spent trying to find answers to these question before they were asked. Trying to find some text about fuinjutsu or some way to make ji-ji explain me what fuinjutsu is and what I would need to learn it. Finding someone that would tell me about training weights, so I could ask ji-ji about them, or use makeshift versions.

We've been doing our routine for almost four months now, our push-up, sit-up and squat count has reached an impressive 125. Today wasn't any special day, _yet_. As we were about to finish our morning run, we saw a green blur race past us. Even if I immediately knew what it was, I couldn't help the surprised expression that came on my face similar to the other two. Why? Because the blur was a green man running on his hands. Before we could disregard what we saw as a weird dream or us seeing things due to being too tired. The man turned around started running towards us and stopped right in front of us. I had found Guy. The thoughts of trying to find Guy to get advice on physical conditioning from him had crossed my mind but I had discarded them thinking it too much for our starting point. I did however wanted to get info about training weights from him.

* _THUD_ *

Huh?

Oh! Naruto was trying to do a hand stand. * _THUD_ *. He fell again.

"GOOD MORNING YOUTHFUL YOUNG'UNS!"

"Aaaaahhhh. Goo-Good morning shinobi-san." Wow he really is intense.

"HAHA. HOW LOVELY TO SEE HOT BLODDED YOUTHFUL PEOPLE PUSHING THEIR BODIES TO THE LIMIT IN THE MORNING" I've got nothing to say, somebody please take over the conversation.

"Pst, Rashi. Who is a strange guy?" Narumi whispered in my ear.

"He is a shinobi look at his belt."

"I can see that. Why is he yelling?"

"How would I know?"

"Hey guys, do you think if we ignore it, it will go away?"

No amount of face-palms are enough for you Naruto.

Alright you can do this. He's a good guy, he's just a little *ahem*…a lot weird.

"Good morning shinobi-san" you already said that.

"Um my name is Arashi, this is Naruto and this is Narumi. We live in an orphanage nearby. Um…. I haven't seen you around here."

"OH I DON'T LIVE HERE BUT I CROSS THIS PLACE MULTIPLE TIMES ON MY MORNING LAPS AROUND KONOHA. I JUST SAW YOU YOUNGLINGS WORKING A SWEAT AND FELT SO GLAD, I HAD TO COME AND TALK TO YOU. YOU HAVE MADE THE INTENSITY OF MY OWN FLAMES OF YOUTH INCREASE A HUNDRED FOLD. I WILL DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF LAPS I WILL RUN TODAY, NO TRIPLE!"

"Umm. Sure. You do that. While we have to ….. get …. back …. for … BREAKFAST! Yes breakfast … aaah *ahem* breakfast. So see you tomorrow on our morning run … or not." Whoa! the look Narumi sent towards me when I said see you tomorrow was more venomous than ever. "Anyways I didn't get your name shinobi-san."

"OH HOW RUDE OF ME! I AM KONOHA'S MAGNIFICENT GREEN BEAST MIGHT GUY."

"Sure Guy-san nice meeting you. We gotta go now. Bye."

We were about to drop dead when he had come. Now we were high tailing out of there as if we were starting afresh.

* * *

Along with training, I also started exploring konoha, slowly and steadily familiarizing myself with the layout, the streets, the shortcuts and important landmarks. There is actually a street called _**Siekatsu no Michi**_ which roughly translates in English to ' **the road of life** '. There is a very crowded market over there with various small lanes leading to some unsavory while some other interesting places. For someone new to the place, it is quite easy to get lost here. When I found this street, I was cackling like mad. Naruto got really scared that I had finally lost it.

We already knew where ichiraku was, the area around ichiraku was full of food stalls or restaurants. There was a small diner like place called _Dango's,_ a food stall by the name of curry of life. Bakeries, fast food, quick meals. This place was the food hub of konoha. Any establishment above the size of a diner, had an Akimichi (or people whom I thought were akimichi) standing at the counter. Well who else could they be? They were big. They were happy.

At the center of the city was the administrative block. The library, the hokage tower, the Uchiha police headquarters, the T&I office, the genin barracks (after graduating the orphans move out of the orphanage) and other places like the citizenship office, the shinobi bank (there are private banks in konoha but any payment above a low C-rank mission is sent to shinobi bank accounts) were all here. There was a very high population of Uchiha's roaming around this block too.

To the east and to the west of the administrative block were the clan compounds of various sizes. The largest were the hyuuga, the uchiha and the akimichi compounds. The nara compound was also too large for us to walk around (I was judging the size by walking around the walls surrounding them, to enter you have to pass through guards who need definite reason and it's proof for you being in there.) but my guess is that it was because of the nara forest. The uchiha and inuzuka compounds are also similarly large. The inuzuka land also consists of woods, but theirs is used for hunting, while uchihas have a large population and they have their own training grounds. There are other minor clans and their compounds. The old, abandoned Hatake compound near the eastern fields, the small kurama compound to the south-east of the admin. block and many others. The Yamanaka's have a compound right in between the akimichi and the Nara compounds but from what I have seen many yamanaka live outside the compound in regular residential areas (to monitor the civilian trends and moods and gossips maybe?).

To the north-east of the admin block there are one after another residential blocks, mainly civilians live there but shinobi do too (civilian parents whose children became shinobi later on, or just shinobi who bought places in the civilian sectors). The civilians must feel safe having shinobi living around them so that's a plus I guess.

The north-western part of konoha is entirely a commercial district. Merchant guild offices, other small and large business offices, stores, showrooms, factories, warehouses and various small and large markets.

As me and Naruto roamed the streets of konoha. I noticed something that was driving me crazy. The glares, the sneers, the whispers, throwing us out of the shops it wasn't there the first few days but as we spent more time in the streets I think that people started recognizing us and someone was actively spreading rumors about us (again). I heard various things like the yondaime died because of us or we were kyuubi stuck in human forms or the same old we attracted the kyuubi the day it attacked. Ji-ji made a point to be seen in public places with us, earlier I doubted it would work and it didn't, everyone kept to themselves while he was around. Whatever ji-ji did to hide our status as jinchuuriki didn't work. Which got me thinking, the information about us being the host must have been leaked from somewhere inside. Now there are many parties who would benefit from the population of konoha hating us. The other villages, Danzo, Akatsuki, Zetsu the list goes on. Instead of one, the existence of two kyuubi hosts doesn't change anything from their perspective. So if they were the ones who spread the news of Naruto's status as a jinchuuriki in the village in canon, they should have done that here too.

For now the shinobi side was more or less ok with us. There were those who didn't like us to be anywhere near them. Those who made faces like they had eaten something sour upon seeing us. The shops in the civilian and commercial sectors weren't very kind to us either. But most shinobi just had a guarded wariness towards us. Which I completely understood. We had such a powerful entity inside us and the jinchuuriki didn't have a nice reputation. Most people didn't know that konoha had jinchuuriki in the last two generations and quite famous women too at that. To them having a jinchuuriki inside their village was a new experience. They believed when their hokage said that we were safe but a shinobi is nothing if not paranoid.

* * *

I started visiting the library and ji-ji's office regularly. Ji-ji had a large collection of books in his office. My first target was anything that would give me a reason to ask him what fuinjutsu was. I tried to find anything written by the yondaime, Jiraiya (that lead me to some interesting finds), and any mention of Uzumaki (which I knew I wouldn't find but I was trying anyway). I didn't find anything useful until one day I sneaked into the shinobi section. In the genin section, there were introductory texts about many arts. One of them was fuinjutsu. Unless my chakra was unlocked, genjutsu or ninjutsu texts were useless anyway. I read the introduction of the book, put it back, went to ji-ji's office and asked him what fuinjutsu was. Upon asking I truthfully told him I sneaked into the genin section. He gave me the standard warning about not doing it again and coming to him instead, and then he asked "So fuinjutsu huh? Why are so interested in it?"

"I know what the other basic ninja arts are, but nobody ever told me about this. And the librarian was coming so I had to leave the book and run before I could read what it was." I've gotten really good at making my efforts look silly and innocent over the years.

"Heh. Alright I'll show you." Success!

He took out a strip of paper, picked up his brush dipped it in the ink well sitting beside the stack of paper on his desk and did something to the brush. It glowed a faint blue for a few moments. I think he channeled chakra into it. He started writing something on the paper. When he was finished, he made a 'come-hither' gesture. I went up to him and sat in his lap. Actions like this and being picked up still feel very weird to me but for the advantage of higher vantage points you have to do it from time to time.

"What are the basic ninja arts?" he asked. It's a simple enough question, no harm in answering correctly. But I will mess up with a few pronunciation here and there.

"Taijutsu, Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. Oh and there is also the one where you use weapons…. Um…what was it? Bu-bukujutsu?"

"Bukijutsu"

"Yeah that one."

"Hmm. Good, good. These are the most common ones. There are many more ninja arts. Many of them can be considered to come under these categories. While others are considered to be a category of their own. Fuinjutsu is such an art form." He has entered the lecture mode (I call it his 'Professor' mode)

"Ninjutsu is the art of using chakra to affect the world around us in a physical way. Manipulating the elements, changing the shape, size and position of things and beings around us, all can be done through ninjutsu. Genjutsu is the art of using chakra to weave illusions. To manipulate someone's mind. Make them see things, hear things and feel things that aren't there. Taijutsu is the art of using your body to fight up close and personal with your opponent. Fuinjutsu is the art of using chakra to empower written word to do what you want it to do. Have you ever seen a storage scroll?"

I nod excitedly with a big grin on my face (something I learnt from Naruto) "Yes, Taichi-san, he is the cook at the orphanage, he puts the groceries he buys into these small scrolls and then he opens the scrolls in the kitchen and does something with his fingers so that the food just pops and comes out of the scroll."

"Good, many people think that all fuinjutsu can do is seal something into something else. But it can be used to do so much more."

"Like what?"

"Now watch this." He put his index finger on the seal he had written. The seal started glowing brightly. I shied away from it at first, when all it did was glow I looked towards it and realized it was meant to work like a lamp or a light bulb.

"Cool!"

"All I had written was glow." I checked the seal, there was a kanji written on it.

"That's glow?"

"It's the kanji for the word glow."

"So it won't work if I don't write it in kanji?"

"Not necessarily. Masters can make complex seals with simple words and scripts."

"So does it like make whatever you write come true?"

"Haha. No, no it doesn't work like that. Not everything you write but if you follow certain rules, imagination is the only limit to what fuinjutsu can do."

"Wow, it's so cool… Why doesn't more people use it?"

"It takes a lot more time to learn than nin, tai and genjutsu. It is dangerous to learn without someone experienced teaching it to you. There are many complex rules to it and even the smallest mistakes can ruin entire seals."

"So like it's very difficult?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. I want to learn."

"Do you now?" he has a knowing smile on his face and seems genuinely happy. He is just as excited about me learning it as I am. That's good. I nod excitedly "Yes. I do."

"Hmm then write your name here." He hands me a fresh slip of paper and the brush. Oh! He wants to see my calligraphy. Too bad. I write my name in kanji as best as I could. It barely resembles the symbol it's supposed to be. "Hmm now that will not do. Wait here." He leaves me on his chair while he himself goes into the adjoined room to his office. It's his personal library. I've tried to get in there many times but he doesn't let me.

He comes out carrying a worn out scroll and hands it to me. "Take a blank scroll. And copy all the kanji written in this scroll again and again until you think it looks exactly like the one in the scroll. Once you complete this scroll come to me."

"Thank you."

"No problem. Now run along and let me work."

"Bye, ji-ji"

* * *

So, I started fuinjutsu practice, I started our physical conditioning, the pranks are still going but now me and Narumi actively participate in the execution part and not just the planning phase. We think of it as stealth and trap making training. Seeing our motivation and since Narumi is going, Kenichi decided that he will join the shinobi academy too, along with two of his lackeys (I've known these people for over two years now, I really should know their names). I've done all that is needed now. The only thing that I think we can do that I haven't already done is making a few contacts. Knowing the right people always helps. If we can make acquaintances of people we know are going to be in the academy with us, we might get a few friends in advanced. Towards that end, I started taking Naruto with me to the parks near the Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clan compounds. Even if they play in their clan compounds they will come to the parks sometime.

They didn't.

We went there regularly every second day for almost three months. Naruto thought we were going to make new friends, but after constant rejection day after day both of us started to get depressed. By the end of the third month people had stopped to coming to that particular park altogether. Now I was thinking that maybe the clan heads will have pity on us and start bringing their children (the senior ino-shika-cho were good friends of Minato). But I knew it was too depressing and pathetic an idea so we just gave up on that. If it happens in the academy, it will. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

From what I have gathered about the division of classes, there are three divisions. First one being the clan children or the civilian children who show promise. These are the ones who are expected to be good enough to be on a jounin's team by the time they graduate. The second class are the ones who have good genes and pedigree but haven't shown any promise yet. These mostly consist of odd ducklings from clans and second gen shinobi. The third class is the mostly untested material. Orphans, first gens etc. Of course, if ou show potential and perform well you are promoted to higher classes.

Obviously we will be in the first class, but unless ji-ji is convinced to keep her with us, Narumi will be in the third class and will have to fight her way up to our class. Something that will take at least a year's time. But that is something that I have a year and a half to take care of. Maybe she will be good enough to get into the first class on her own merit (there is an entrance exam to test the ones who might be able to be put in higher classes). It can't be that difficult anyway Sakura was in first class and she was a first gen.

* * *

 **Hope you like the story till now. the next chapter should be here by Monday.**

 **Please check out the poll. It will help a lot. Otherwise I might make a team by myself and people might not like it, then that would make me sad...**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:Here you go, a brand new chapter just for you!**

 **The poll regarding the team placements is still there on my profile please go and vote.**

 **The results till now are:**

 **1)Arashi, Narumi and another OC as team 11 - 3 votes**

 **2)Arashi, Narumi and Shino as team 11 - 1 vote**

 **3)Arashi, Hinata and Shino as team 8 - 1 vote**

 **Go and vote now!**

 **As always i hope you enjoy reading this story. If you do then Favorite, Follow and Review.**

 **I am still looking for a beta reader. (Nobody replies to my PM (⌯˃̶᷄ ﹏ ˂̶᷄⌯)ﾟ)**

 **Also, can anyone please help me writing a good enough summary? Please...**

 **Disclamer: The ownership of Naruto thingy. yeah that is still under negotiation. I said please Kishi said no. As I said it is still under negotiation. So i don't own it yet.**

* * *

"197…..198….199…haah…huff…..200! That's it! Gather around …. Tomorrow is the entrance test for the academy. Now, don't worry about the result. I talked to ji-ji and he said that nobody fails the exam but they are used to put everybody in different classes. We are aiming for the top class am I right?"

""Right""

"Alright let's have some dinner, get some rest and we will be ready for the test tomorrow."

It has been almost two years since we started our training and I can see the results. At first, my plan was to go to ji-ji and ask him to put Narumi with us in our class, but now I don't think it is needed at all. Me and Naruto are going to be in the first class irrespective of our performance tomorrow. There is a high chance that Narumi will get there through the test anyway. If tomorrow I don't think that she will get there, I will go and talk to ji-ji.

"So did you talk to ji-ji about catra?"

"It's chakra Naruto."

"Yeah that's what I said."

* _sigh_ *

"Yes. I talked to him, he didn't listen."

Ji-ji gave us the first years books for history of Konoha and chakra theory. Ever since he found about chakra, Naruto has been really excited get his unlocked. Ji-ji has been pretty adamant about not unlocking our chakra before we get into the academy and Naruto is really bummed out because of that. I asked around about how they unlock the students' chakra networks in the academy and what I found, gave me a few clues about why ji-ji might be reluctant to having our chakra networks unlocked without proper preparations.

Apparently, the chakra flow in an unused chakra network like ours is very sluggish and slow. To unlock ones chakra means to jump start the flow inside the network. The person doing the unlocking sends a surge of their own chakra inside the person whose chakra is being unlocked. The host's chakra flow is increased as a reaction to push out the foreign chakra. If not done properly there are some nasty problems that can arise. In a normal case without any complication, the child's chakra is released in wild bursts. Not enough to cause anything more serious than exhaustion. In our case, nobody knows how much chakra we will release or whether it will be our chakra or kyuubi's. I for one definitely wouldn't want to release kyuubi chakra inside konoha causing panic and alarm amongst the citizens and ruining what little tolerance they have for us.

Guy met us almost daily on our morning runs. No matter how many times I meet him, I can't get used to him. The way he just laugh in the face of the very concept of inside voice. Or how he just destroys any semblance of normalcy you have around you, the moment his presence is noticed (which isn't a very tough task either). I have never seen him anywhere else in konoha. Neither have I seen him standing on his legs which is even stranger. I asked him many a times about tips and advice on our training but he just said that what we were doing was fine enough for our age.

By now we were running five laps to and fro across the monuments cliff and doing 200 reps of push-ups, sit-ups and squat each. Not only that, my calligraphy practice is going pretty well too. I finished the first scroll ji-ji gave me and am almost finished with the one he gave me after that too. He said that he will give a beginner's book about fuinjutsu after this.

Due to her stamina not being like ours and her body not being as durable as ours, Narumi had a lot of problem in the beginning keeping up with us. She still can't keep at it as long as us but she is still a lot better than she used to be. She can complete our daily routine twice and not break down with exhaustion after it. No matter how I tried, my stamina was always less than Naruto. My stamina and durability is definitely higher than everybody else' but Naruto's is higher still.

Either way, I am pretty confident about our odds tomorrow.

* * *

In the morning, ji-ji was waiting for us in front of the orphanage. A couple of months ago Narumi had finally met him but she didn't believe he was the hokage. She thought that ji-ji was a crazy old man who was fooling me and Naruto by telling us that he was the hokage. When she realized that he was indeed the hokage, she was reduced to a blushing, stuttering mess. She still blushes and mumbles whenever round him.

Ji-ji lead us to the academy from an out of the way route. I've noticed that he does that whenever Narumi is around. When it's just me and Naruto he takes the crowded routes. I think it is to avoid people thinking that they can get close to the hokage by getting close to us or something like that.

The academy grounds and entrance is filled with parents and their children. As soon as we arrive all eyes are on us. Narumi is hiding behind me and Naruto. I'm trying to avoid thinking about all the attention on me and Naruto is just natural at ignoring his surroundings.

As we move towards the building, the crowds parts and makes way for us. Again Narumi is pulled in awkward situations because of us. Over the years we all have come to an understanding that me and Naruto are somehow different than others and it's somehow related to the kyuubi. The only good thing is that our roommates understand that whatever it is we didn't do anything on purpose neither do we know what it is that we did. Me and ji-ji even had an open conversation about this. I agreed to not asking about it again till we graduate from the academy and he promised that on graduating he will stop lying and tell us everything (I know he will only tell us about our jinchuuriki status and not anything about our heritage). All he told us for now is that it wasn't our fault and that we didn't do anything wrong (it was enough for Naruto).

The number of applicants is around 70-80. There are not many clan children this year. Those who are, are the heirs or heiresses or children of the clan heads. No other normal clan children. Given the politics that are involved here, I wouldn't want my children to be in the same year as my clan's heir too. If they outperform the heir/heiress in any way, the heir's reputation will fall. On the other hand constantly being outdone by the heir/heiress and even being forced to hold yourself back so as to make the heir/ heiress look good can be pretty frustrating and create personality issues in children. So this year is going to be the clan heirs/heiresses/children of clan heads and civilian children or orphans who don't have much chance of keeping up with them either way. That is why there were so many fangirls and civilian children who never made it in their jounin tests in this year in canon.

The first part of the exam was a written test. Nothing much, just to test basic literacy and arithmetic. After much effort, I have made sure that Naruto will pass this exam. Even if this test is a mere formality for us, it's no excuse for not being able to write. The paper we got though was not what I was expecting. It wasn't difficult per se, but I am not a child either. The maths is a bit higher than basic arithmetic. The kanji needing translation are the ones I saw in the calligraphy scrolls I got from ji-ji. Naruto is not going to be able to do this at all. I had prepared him for a basic literacy test with basic arithmetic proficiency, which is what the ji-ji told me was going to be on the test.

Two desks away from me Narumi is writing away. Which is strange as she shouldn't be able to solve this. She isn't dumb, she actually quite smart and has a sharp memory but this is something I'm sure she doesn't know yet.

Looking at Naruto, I know that he can't make out heads or tails of the paper.

Did somebody gave us different papers?

Probably.

How do I deal with this?

Oh! Iruka is coming this way. Let's hope that he will be at least professional and not ignore me.

"Excuse me!" *fingers-crossed* please respond. Please respond. Please respond. Please respond.

"Yes?" JACKPOT!

"Um…. This kanji can have two different meanings, do I write both or….?" Please notice that the paper is different. Please notice that the paper is different. Please notice that the paper is different.

"Hmm… that's not right. Who gave you this paper?"

"Umm…the sensei at the door. Is something wrong?"

"Wait a sec." he went up to Naruto's desk and checked his paper too. Oh! God bless you Iruka.

He took both of our papers and gave us new ones. This one is much easier. I can see Naruto is quite relived and is happily writing now. Crisis averted!

* * *

After the written test, comes the physical one. This is the make or break point for Narumi. All the examinees are assembled in a large ground behind the academy building. The first order of the business is running. We all are asked to run 10 laps around the ground. This has got nothing on our daily runs along the cliff walls but the ground is large enough for normal 6 year olds.

As the run started, Naruto was in the front, sprinting away along with a kid I think is Kiba and a few other nobodies.

When we had started training it had become clear right at the beginning that letting Naruto set the pace was stupid, and that Narumi will set the pace so slow that we will never be pushed nor will we ever complete a single lap before sun-down. So I had taken charge, keeping the pace fast enough so that she is able to keep up but just barely. Always just out of reach. I had to keep increasing the pace every few days. Naturally, this time as well she waited on me to set pace.

By the end of the first two laps there were two distinct groups running on the track. A group consisting entirely of the clan children (the rookie nine and a few others from minor clans). The other group had the civilian born children and the orphans like Kenichi's group. Oh I just noticed them. Right in the middle of these two groups are me and Narumi. Now I'm just waiting for Naruto.

It takes him three laps to realize that we are not running with him so he slows down and finds us. Once we three are together, I start increasing our pace. By the end of the fifth lap we are running alongside the clan children. Narumi is easily keeping up with everybody. Now that I have a look at it, Narumi is the only orphan in this group. If this doesn't get her in the first class I don't know what will.

The laps finished with Sasuke and Kiba in the lead with Shino and Hinata right behind them. We were the ones behind them which isn't good enough for Naruto and now he is mad that I didn't try to win. The fact that it wasn't a race to begin with doesn't matter to him apparently.

After the run, there were some catching and throwing exercises. After that there was a stretching session where an instructor showed various exercises and we had to copy his movements. A while later he started doing taijutsu stances instead of stretching exercises. Now he is doing simple aerobics.

After that there was a medical examination and we were done for the day.

* * *

I'm pretty sure that Narumi will be in our class. She is capable and she showed it in the exam. But I still feel like it will be better to have some form of confirmation. That is why I am going to talk this out with ji-ji.

"Ji-ji I completed the second scroll."

"Done already Arashi-kun? Good, good come here show it too me" he checks my works and deems it satisfactory enough because he got up from his chair and went inside his library (where he still wouldn't let me go). A few minutes later he comes out carrying a small worn out book.

"Here. This is the introductory book my student Jiraiya learnt from."

Let's see it has a lot of theory in it and I don't see any seals actually in there.

"When you learn all that is in there in this book come to me and I will test you."

"Hai…. Ji-ji?"

"Hmm"

"I was thinking about the academy entrance exam."

"I'm not rigging the exam for you Arashi-kun. The rules are there for everybody."

"Oh come-on!" I bring on a deep blush on my face and look down at my feet. "Atleast listen to me."

I had tried to get him to meet our friends so many times but he always refused. That was until I tried this. I went all blushy and shy whenever I talked about Narumi in front of him. Either he really believes that I have a massive crush on her or he is just amused by it but he did agree to meeting with her. He is probably just amused, I'm not good enough yet to fool him this easily. Plus he has me observed 24/7, I don't think it will go unnoticed that I don't act uncomfortable around her but get flustered talking about her in front of him.

He releases a massive sigh, fills up his pipe, take a deep puff and looks at me with exasperation. "You want me to put your friend in your class."

I just keep looking down and nod.

"Arashi-kun I know you are just acting."

Ok so the jig is up. He isn't amused anymore apparently. I wonder what has got him so worried about us being with Narumi. She is just a harmless orphan. Or is it about conflicting loyalties? Will we chose him over her if such a situation was created? Hmm that might actually be a lot closer to the truth than I think.

"I know that you want your friend to be in your class but if she can't keep up then isn't it better to have her learn at a pace she is comfortable with?"

"But she can! She has been training with us for 2 years now and she did almost as good as the other clan children there in the exam."

"Then she will get into a higher class. Shouldn't you be worried about your own result?"

Oh! I have never been officially told by him about class placement. That was all from Mitsu-nee. She is going to be in the second year now. But still according to ji-ji, all I know about the exam is that it fairly judges the children's potential and classifies them in different classes. Telling ji-ji that some orphan told me that he can rig the exam might have good or bad repercussions.

"I will do just fine."

"Did she prepare for the test?"

"She is as good as me and Naruto at everything."

"Then the judges at the academy will put her where she should be."

* _sigh_ *

Well, at least I tried.

She will get into first class. The number of fangirls in their class was amazing. She is much better than all of them.

* * *

Two days after the exam ji-ji took us to the hideout outside the walls where we used to live. The reasons I can think of is to either check the seal or unlocking our chakra (the barriers around this place make it a safe place to do it).

"Boys today we are going to unlock your chakra" me and Naruto are already jumping in celebration. "However, before we do that, you both will promise me you will not play with you chakras."

"Awwwww!"

"Now, now don't be like that. It is dangerous to play with chakra. If you use it too much you could die."

After the standard warnings and promises to read books on chakra theory, we proceeded to the unlocking. Ji-ji took us to the master bedroom of the house. He placed his right hand on-top of Naruto's forehead and nothing happened for a few moments. Suddenly, a wave of energy burst out of Naruto (almost like dragon ball Z). Ji-ji standing right next to him was pushed back a few feet (he was still standing and his expression completely impassive). I was at the other end of the room so I wasn't pushed back or anything but I did feel the increased heat and pressure in the room. As suddenly the energy came it disappeared just as suddenly. The walls of the room were glowing a dark red with complex seals. I looked at Naruto and saw that he was knocked out lying on the floor. I ran up to him but ji-ji stopped me and said that he is just tired and is sleeping. He picked him up and laid him down in a corner. He then asked me to stand in the center. It was my turn.

I was not nervous about this even when I saw what happened with Naruto. The logical side of my mind is telling me that nothing wrong is going to happened, that ji-ji will not let anything happen, but I am still a sweating, shivering, nervous mess. Ji-ji placed his hand on my forehead and I calmed down a little. I felt a chill run through my body starting from his palm. My thoughts being 'that would be the pulse and now here comes my own chakra'. I was standing there bracing myself for a burst of kyuubi chakra just like Naruto.

So I waited some more.

And I waited again.

Right when I was about to give up and ask ji-ji what was going on, my entire body felt like it was on fire. I tried to scream but I was completely paralyzed. The intense burning was there for a few seconds but it was later on replaced by a cool sensation. As if water was running throughout my body, trying to heal the burnt flesh. I looked down at myself and was surprised when I didn't find any actual burns. It really did felt like I had burnt myself. I was down on my hands and my knees panting and sweating like a pig, truly exhausted when I heard a single word whispered in my ear.

' _sleep_ '

So that's what I did.

* * *

When I came to, we were in ji-ji's office laying down on the couch he has there. As soon as I woke up I tried to wake Naruto up too. I was feeling giddy for some reason. Usually when Naruto wakes up from sleep he is groggy and not completely in control of himself. Now he was on his feet and jumping around as soon as he was awake. It was as if we were children on a sugar high. I heard a deep gravelly laughter that I could recognize anywhere and turned to see ji-ji sitting in his desk, smiling.

He made a come-hither motion with his hands and we raced to his desk and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of him. "Are you both feeling much more happy and excited than normal?" we both enthusiastically nodded. "That is because your quickly flowing chakra is providing you with more energy than what you are used to. In a few days your body will get used to it and you will be back to normal."

A sugar high that will last a few days. That is just what I needed now. I have so many ideas to try with my chakra. Some of them are downright stupid and extremely dangerous. I could have controlled it earlier, now I feel like there are superpowers running through me. Which is not good. The moment you stop fearing gravity is the moment you have the worst fall of your life. Here it could mean anything from chakra exhaustion to releasing the kyuubi.

"Now you might feel like you can do anything like run around for hours or eat ten times what you normally do or like you can stay up all night. But you can't do any of that. As soon as you feel like that, go and tell Fuyuki-san. She will help you."

""Haaaaii!""

"Don't play with your chakra AT ALL before it settles down and after that only under supervision of a grown-up."

""Haaaaii!""

"And don't make any trouble for Fuyuki-san or any other staff members."

""Haaaaii!""

"Help them out if you can. Now run along I've got work to do. I will come to meet you both tomorrow."

""Haaaaii!""

* * *

The remaining week before the academy has been the best trip I ever had in both my lives. The first two days I felt like I had superpowers. I had so much energy it was like when I realized that I had jinchuuriki stamina for the first time. I ran along the cliff wall for 15-20 times just for the hell of it. My legs weren't working very well for the next whole day, which with my new found energy was extremely irritating. I did eat a whole lot more than normal on all days and I think my diet has increased permanently. Naruto and I had become Fuyuki-san's biggest headaches. Given that she was used to having children with recently unlocked chakra around (the academy students who don't have their chakra unlocked which always include children in the orphanages have theirs done in the first week of the academy) she still was really annoyed by the end of the week. So were our roommates. I remember when Mitsuko's chakra was unlocked she actually got up and played ninja with the children in the front yard. She also practiced kunai and shurikenjutsu in the backyard with the graduating year students. She was actually better than the seniors who were going to be genin in a few days. Even so the worst she did that might have annoyed any of us was that she stayed up at nights and asked to keep the lights on because she was reading. Naruto and I had destroyed any semblance of peace they might have had.

I tried to resist it for the first two days (using my energy somewhere else where I wouldn't bother others like when I went running) but eventually I gave in and enjoyed it like an actual high. After that any idea Naruto proposed I agreed to it and we did some really weird stuff. We even came pretty close to jumping off the hokage monument. That is when I remembered my thought about stop fearing gravity and I came to my senses. I dragged Naruto down to the orphanage and asked our roommates to lock us up in the room for a few hours. Before dinner time, I was completely normal (well whatever goes as normal for me) and Naruto was almost there too.

Narumi amongst all this was very mad that we got our chakra before her. She said she thought we would go through it together but I know that it wasn't possible anyway. She will have her chakra next week. For her sake I wish that she enjoys this just as much as I did.

* * *

 **AN: yup i was high when i wrote the last part.**

 **please Fav, Follow and Review.**

 **Also vote on my profile.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:So here is a new chapter. Again i hope that you will enjoy it. Any and all advises regarding the story or the characters are most welcome.**

 **To the reviewers:  
**

 **lion018: Thank you for noticing. That is what I was going for. I feel that the more realistic and relatable the events in a story is the more interesting it gets. I'll try to keep it up.**

 **Warlord of Chaos: I'm glad you liked'em. Goro and Yama don't have much screen time from now on. They will be there but just not as much as the others. And yes that was Itachi he was describing.**

 **Timijaf & guests: Thank YOU...**

 **Still looking for the beta. Still nobody replies to my PMs.**

 **Oh yes! The summary. It's sorely lacking and you all know it but I can't come up with something. Please someone help me there.**

 **Enjoy, Review, Favorite and Follow.**

 **Disclamer: Yeah I tried, but all I got was a restraining order. So I still don't own Naruto.**

* * *

"Aburame Shino, Akimichi Choji…Haruno Sakura…Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba…Nara Shikamaru, Narumi…..Uchiha Sasuke, Uz -Ahem- Uzumaki Arashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino. This is class one please follow me."

On the first day of the academy there is a small ceremony where all the ninja aspirants and their parents assemble, the hokage gives a speech about the will of fire and then the class teachers call out the names of their students.

When we heard Narumi's name being in the first class we three were barely containing ourselves. I felt like a high-school graduate once more, waiting for my college entrance exam result. I also noticed the slight hitch in Iruka's voice when he called our names. Hmm, from what I can remember Iruka took the 'ignore him' approach towards Naruto. Most probably he will do the same here as well. He later on grew close to him seeing how Naruto was just like himself when he was younger. I haven't the faintest idea how that is going to happen now that Naruto isn't alone and craving for attention.

We all entered the building in a queue following Iruka. He led us to a classroom. It was a university style lecture hall just not as big. I was going to the last bench in a corner but Naruto just ran like the wild creature he was and sat in the front. I stood there for a few moments thinking whether it was worth it to try and convince him to move back with us. I didn't think it was, so all three of us sat in the first bench.

Iruka stood next to his desk waiting patiently for the class to settle down.

"Good morning everyone! My name is Umino Iruka, and this is my first time as a teacher so please go easy on me."

Rookie mistake. Never tell people that you are a rookie.

Teaching mistake. Never leave any leverage for the children, they will eat you alive.

He talked on and on about what we were going to learn in the academy, what exactly in which year, what will be the course this year, what will be our schedule, what are the requirements for graduating to next years and so on.

An hour and a half later, he was still talking. Naruto had fallen asleep half an hour ago, Narumi's head was bobbing up and down, she was struggling to stay awake. I looked around and noticed Shikamaru and a few other asleep too. Kiba was preparing what seemed like spit balls. Choji was sitting next to his sleeping friend happily munching away. Ino had gathered a group of girls around her who were all giggling and whispering to each other. I looked back at Iruka and he was still talking.

He talked for what felt like hours but was another few minutes. Once he stopped talking about the rules and regulations of the academy and anything and everything that we might or might not find useful in our next six years in the academy, he stood there silently for the new few minutes and then firmly and loudly said "silence". He got absolutely no response whatsoever. Narumi and I were watching his reactions like a comedy show, the only thing missing was some snacks to munch on. "Silence" he said once again. This time a little louder but the response was still the same. There was a vein pulsing on his forehead and his face was scrunched up and slowly turning red. "I said silence!" the earlier calls were merely him saying it loudly, now he was shouting. The next step would be yelling because he still didn't get any response.

His face and expression turned calm all of a sudden. He took a deep breath. I thought he was doing it to calm himself down and to release his anger. Seems like he had different plans.

"LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!"

…...

…...

…...

…

.

Woah!

His head just grew as large as himself and he yelled so loudly my ears are ringing.

"Woah! How did you do that? It was so cool."

He completely ignored Naruto's question and moved on further with the class.

"Now that I have all of your attention. I would like to tell you all that we are done with the rules and regulation of the academy and are going to start with our first class about history of konoha."

And then he started talking once again. He stopped and yelled at anybody who wasn't listening, he even woke up Shikamaru thrice but he never did anything whenever I or Naruto did something. I even started talking loudly with Narumi to test it and he scolded Narumi a little and carried on with the class.

After hours and hours of lectures, Iruka took us out to the training ground behind the academy building. The other two classes were here too. The physical part again started with running. We were asked to run thirty laps instead of the measly 10 we were asked earlier. The situation was similar to the last time. All the clan children were running at the front while the other orphans and civilian born children were trying to keep up. We were again in the middle of the two groups. This time we were going to win. We stayed in the middle for the first 20 laps and then we started making our way to the front slowly. We sprinted the last lap. Naruto and Sasuke finished first (I had called out to Kiba and he stopped for a few moments before he realized what happened).

"I won!"

"No, you didn't. I did."

And here you have the most important rivalry.

After the run, we again copied whatever the teacher in the front did. Stretching exercises, taijutsu stances, aerobics, and other exercises.

After the physical class the school was over and everybody left in the big mass of running small people that always forms at the end of any school.

* * *

In the orphanages, we don't get any kind of spending money. I heard that in other orphanages the chores generally handled by staff like cleaning yards or halls or bathrooms can be done by the residents to earn some little spending money. In here, those chores are used as punishment. Hence unless they are working a civilian job (which is not allowed before the age of 16 in konoha) or apprenticing in some other occupation (only allowed after finishing the civilian school at the age of 13) there is no way for a resident of our orphanage to have any kind of money. Even if there are some kind of funds left behind by your parents or something like inheritance, you only get that at the age of 16, shinobi or civilian. Now why are we talking about the monetary situation of orphans in konoha? Well because I can't figure out how Narumi bought 40 pounds of candy. It's the third day of her chakra high, she went missing in the afternoon. We always have someone watching over her but she somehow slipped past us, went god knows where and came back with a bucket full of candy saying she bought it.

On the last Friday of the first month of the academy, Iruka sensei and the other teachers of first year gathered everybody whose chakra still had to be unlocked and one by one unlocked all of theirs. We were given a week off so as the people with newly unlocked chakra networks can get off their chakra highs.

Even without the kyuubi, our Uzumaki heritage ensures that Naruto and I have more potent and just plain more chakra than any of our peers. Therefore, I was expecting Narumi's chakra high to be much milder than ours. She is fairly active so my guess was her high being more than Mitsu-nee and much less than ours.

Boy was I wrong.

The day of the unlocking she slept like a log. She didn't wake up no matter what we did. The next day she had reverted back to the cheeky, bubbly girl she used to be when she was two.

She pulled out her rag dolls from somewhere, she tied her hair in a twin tails instead of her usual ponytail. She ate thrice the amount she usually did. She could keep up with us without breaking a sweat in our daily runs and still had enough energy to wreak havoc in our rooms. She continuously kept starting pillow fights in the room. She started a water war in the yard. She somehow got hold of Naruto's prank supplies and spilled paint all over herself, team Kenichi (who were going through their own chakra high) and our entire room.

Mitsu-nee thought that teaching us basic taijutsu stances and how to handle kunai and shuriken would keep her busy for a while (I thought giving sharp objects to a child on a super-sugar high is just plain stupid). The taijutsu practice didn't end well for Naruto. Turns out Narumi is a natural at taijutsu. She might not hit hard enough to actually hurt Naruto **yet,** but I believe she will be a monster at taijutsu in future (Plus given the intensity of her chakra high, her chakra reserves are quite large as well).

Fuyuki-san amongst her and three more brats going through their chakra high was driven to tears. The staff was working overtime to clean up the messes they kept making again and again, despite being monitored continuously. The other three were fine according to Fuyuki-san. It was Narumi who was being problematic. Generally the duration and intensity of the chakra high is a sign of potency and amount of ones chakra. Since most orphans in the orphanages are clan less with a rare few exceptions like me and Naruto being last known descendants, the staff doesn't have to deal with situations like mine, Naruto's or Narumi's.

That raises the question where is Narumi from? She definitely has shinobi heritage given that her chakra is bound to be comparable to the children of the combat effective clans of konoha like the Uchiha or the Inuzuka or the Akimichi. She is naturally flexible, agile and has good instincts to use beginner konoha academy taijutsu effectively in a spar after only a month of training. According to her, she has been here ever since she can remember. Fuyuki-san doesn't answer such question unless the person themselves ask. While Narumi has never shown any interest in learning her past.

Mitsu-nee has been the only one capable of handling her by now but even her patience is wearing thin.

Luckily, by the end of the fourth day of her high Narumi was back to normal again. She slept for the entirety of the fifth day and when she woke up she apologized to us, all the staff members and Fuyuki-san.

* * *

The academy started after that and things went back to normal. We kept gradually increasing our daily workout routine in terms of length as well as increasing the number of exercises we did including the taijutsu katas taught in the academy. Due to Iruka ignoring Naruto, he took to pranking him. But Iruka wasn't a chunin just for show either, he dodged and escaped all of his traps without a scratch. Many others did get caught in those traps and then he was always there to catch Naruto and punish him or ask him to clean up the mess. Investing that much time in his efforts to prank Iruka resulted in him not being there when Narumi and I studied or when I went to the academy or public libraries (not like he was going to go there even if he was not busy). Both the librarians were quite against me spending much time in their libraries which instantly got sorted out when I went to ji-ji's office immediately. After about four to five months, the teachers started to pair students up for taijutsu only spars. In fact after that, any and all disputes were handled by one-on-one spars with a teacher acting as a referee. It promoted students to work hard on their taijutsu in their extra time. The number of times Naruto and Kiba challenged Sasuke was simply astonishing. Amongst girls I had tried to encourage Narumi to befriend Ino and Sakura but she wasn't very interested in their girl talk it seems. She did get along quite well with Hinata though. It was through her that I found out that Hinata had fallen for Naruto again. Some things are just meant to be I guess.

By the end of the first year, we were not the top students but we were among the top ten. Well Narumi and I were, Naruto barely passed any of the written test and had failed most of them so he was again the deadlast.

I tried. I had tried again and again to get him to study or get his interest. Even Narumi tried very hard but we couldn't. He barely made it to next year.

While Narumi was the best amongst girls in anything physical from taijutsu to running to throwing skills, she was still behind Sakura in academics.

I was behind Sasuke, Kiba and Naruto in taijutsu while I was comparable in throwing skills with Sasuke. I didn't really bother in academics but I was still in the top five (which is nothing to be proud of seeing as my classmates are 7 years olds).

And that is how the first year at the academy went.

* * *

The second year is when the Uchiha massacre occurred.

I want to say that I completely forgot about it but the truth is that I simply ignored it. For someone who had my knowledge, it wasn't difficult to notice the signs. The increased dissatisfaction by the public towards the Konoha Military Police Force and trying to avoid getting them involved at all. The KMPF officers being angry and irritated on people calling them brutal or biased. The rapidly decreasing presence of the Uchiha in public places. The ANBU actively participating to solve issues which should have been the KMPF's responsibility. It was all clear as a day.

Before I even thought of meddling in such a dangerous conspiracy (not like I had any means of getting involved in said conspiracy at this point) I had to ask a few questions to myself. First, do I want the Uchiha to die? No. Why would I want so many people to die? I have nothing against them. Even if I did, I am not a monster that would wish death upon every man, woman and child of someone's family. Secondly, am I capable of any kind of active participation? No. As I am now, I am barely capable enough to compete with Sasuke, the universe's chew toy. I have no business sticking my head in a place where people like Shisui and Sir Itachi are going to be stab first ask questions later. Thirdly, am I capable of any kind of passive participation? Maybe. Itachi is in ANBU. Shisui is a jounin and unofficially working at ANBU capacity as ji-ji's spy to monitor the Uchiha. (I have no way confirming these facts I only know that at this point they should be true). The person easiest for me to approach is Sasuke. But given my close relations with ji-ji, any sudden advancements towards him will be suspicious. Rapidly gaining the attention of Fugaku, Mikoto, Itachi, and Danzo is the last thing I want to do. Even if the attention I gain is positive, there is a chance that I might become a tool for Itachi to motivate Sasuke's hatred. I have no need for that.

Conclusion: The Uchiha affair is one sticky mess. Stay out of it.

Do I feel guilty for not doing anything? A little bit. An interesting fact about us humans is that if we lack an active participation in an event, we can make ourselves believe that it is somebody else's problem. Is that an excuse I give to myself? Of course. Many people were slaughtered like cattle and I knowing what was going to happen turned around and kept on walking. Even if I can prove what I did to be the safest course of action, deep down I know that I could have done _something._ In my old world, for all that we said that we will mind our own business, when somebody is in need people reached out. Sure the number of douchebags was large but they were heavily outnumbered by people who would go out of their way to help others. Am I one of those helpful people? I don't know. What I do know is that deep down a minute part of me will always keep speculating whether or not I could have done something to if not prevent this tragedy then to at least reduce the losses.

* * *

After the massacre, Sasuke didn't come to the academy for a month. Many people from our class (mostly girls) tried to visit him in the hospital but he refused any visitors.

On the day he did come back, Iruka-sensei gave us a prior warning about giving him space, not to make loud noises nor to ask anything about what happened. A warning that flew right over the head for most people (again the girls).

For the next few days, he was showered with care packages, cookies, chocolates and other gifts and offers of help to make him happy and better. The more he ignored or rejected them, the more motivated his followers felt. Somehow his lost and hopeless look was making him look detached, aloof and cool to these people. Thus, Sasuke's fan-club was born. Amongst all this Naruto and Kiba kept challenging him to spars four to five times a day each. At first I thought Naruto is just dumb enough to not notice something as colossal as the slaughter of an entire clan, but then I realized that he is the only one smart enough to realize that Sasuke wouldn't want to remember it. The spars were their way of helping him distract himself. Whenever he was overwhelmed by his fangirls, they both would raise a silly issue and challenged him to a spar. To anyone looking from the sidelines, it was quite clear what they were doing. Of course, from the girls' perspective they were annoying their Sasuke-kun and making him feel miserable.

In our first year, after Naruto started pranking people and somehow still developed a crush on Sakura, people had started to come to me to complain about him. Most of the times, I negotiated a peaceful end to the argument, a few times it turned into an all-out brawl. People still came to me with their Naruto issues. They did so this time as well.

Now, knowing that my brother is right am I going to call him off? No. Luckily instead of a hoard only Ino, Sakura and two more girls whom I don't care about enough to remember their names came to me.

"Hey you! Call your brother off of Sasuke-kun."

Man Ino is bossy. Is that expression supposed to scare me?

"And why would I do that Ino-san?"

"Because he is annoying Sasuke-kun." Background girl no.1 said (yes I named them BG girl 1 and BG girl 2 just now).

"Yeah and it's not like he can win against Sasuke-kun anyway" that was Sakura.

""Yeah"" I don't think I need to point out who that must've been.

"Sasuke-kun just suffered a great loss, he doesn't need losers like your brother to bother him now."

OK, this girl just crossed the line there.

I stood up and came close to her. Our faces a mere few inches away.

"Yamanaka-san, I don't care how you feel about Uchiha-san or what you and him do about anything but I will not allow you to talk like that about my brother. If Naruto and Kiba's challenges are really that bad then why does Uchiha-san keep accepting them while he keeps ignoring all your efforts to 'cheer him up'?"

Before she could answer back I cut her off.

"You father is the clan head of the Yamanaka clan is he not?"

"Yes, he is. What about it?"

She is not backing down either.

Good!

"That would mean he is a psychiatrist. Before you offer assistance to someone, you really should consult him on what a person needs when dealing with loss. I don't claim to know anything about this stuff but I do know that your gifts and offers to help him only remind him of him loss and his weakness again and again. He is an orphan now Yamanaka-san. I have been one since the day I was born and I know that the last thing an orphan wants is your pity."

The stern look on her face is wavering now.

"But that doesn't concern me at all right now. What concerns me is that you came to me and then insulted my brother, my only family in this world right in front of me….. You are a smart person Yamanaka-san, smart people don't do stuff like that."

Now, all this talk and fancy dialogues was not to actually scare her but to tell her that insulting Naruto in front me is not something she should do and that I am really angry at her. She is a spoilt sassy girl. I know she will grow up to be mature and also be a powerful ally in the future. So I have absolutely no ill will towards her. Therefore, what happened next was never my intention.

I felt a very slight decrease in the warmth in my stomach that I had come to associate with my chakra. The reaction was instant. All four girls dropped on their knees sobbing, BG girl 2 threw up even.

Did I release killing intent? Is it supposed to be that easy? I didn't even want to do it? Even if I did it shouldn't be that hard on them. Does releasing killing intent use up chakra? If I just released killing intent to reduce them to such a miserable state then others must have noticed it too. Killing intent in the academy can be alarming. This place should be filled with ninja and on duty guards to check out what is happening. But there are none, so that would mean I didn't release killing intent. So what the hell is going on?

"Hey are you ok? What happened? Oi!"

Ok they are not sobbing anymore but they are crying silently. Ino looks up to me, she really is terrified.

"Ge-Genjutsu?"

 _Huh?_

Ino starts running towards the academy building. The rest of the three follow her without any delay.

I did something bad. And I don't even know what. But it looked serious. I might get into big trouble for this. I have a really bad feeling for this. Bad enough that I feel like the best course of action is to run to ji-ji's office.

I do so. The rest of the academy day is ruined anyway.

* * *

I ran non-stop to his office. I didn't even stop at the receptionist to ask if he was busy or not. Luckily he wasn't.

* _BAM_ *

I barged into his office and closed the door behind me leaning against the door. I'm a sweating and panting mess.

"Ji-ji! Huff…. I did something bad."

"Calm down Arashi-kun. Calm down." He picks a glass full of water and brings it to me. "Here, drink some water. Easy now."

"Now, tell me what happened."

"I was sitting under the tree I usually do during lunch break. Narumi had gone somewhere with Hinata-san. So I was sitting when Yamanaka-san and Haruno-san and two other girls came up to me. They wanted me call Naruto off of Uchiha-san. I was talking to them when they started to talk bad about Naruto, so I got mad. Then they all started crying and fell down. I asked what happened to them but Yamanaka-san said Genjutsu and ran away. She looked really scared."

"Hmm are you sure she said Genjutsu?"

"Ha-Hai."

* _beep*_

"Hokage-sama chunin Umino Iruka is here from the academy. He wants to report an issue. He says it's serious."

* _beep_ *

 _CRAP!_

"Send him in." ji-ji sits in his chair and starts filling up his pipe.

"Go and sit on the couch Arashi-kun."

While sitting on the couch I try to figure out what the hell is going on? Did I really use genjutsu? If so, then how? Naruto and I should never have enough chakra control to perform even a minor illusion. Is it possible that Ino thought it was a genjutsu but it was just really strong killing intent? That again raises the question of why didn't anybody else notice it?

Whatever it was let's hope for the best.

When Iruka-sensei enters the office, he checks out his surroundings like all ninjas do. He noticed me with my puffy eyes sitting on the couch and stills for a moment but continues on afterwards. The pause being barely noticeable.

"Hokage-sama"

"What happened Iruka-kun?"

"Four students of my class came to me to report an illegal use of extensive illusionary techniques in the academy by Arashi-kun."

"Hmm name of the students."

"Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, Hasegawa Kimiko and Kongo Neru"

"Are you sure a genjutsu was used?"

"The academy medic found traces of foreign chakra in their system. Same chakra in all four."

"Hmm….What do you have to say for yourself Arashi-kun?"

"I didn't do it!"

"Are you sure?" he asked sternly. Oh boy, he is pissed.

"Even if I did, I didn't do it on purpose."

"And what do you think you did?"

"I already told you. She was talking bad about Naruto so I was angry. I was talking to her but then they all started crying and fell down. I asked what happened but they all ran away."

He pressed the intercom button.

* _beep_ *

"Korumi, who is the medic on duty today?"

"Tora-san"

"Send him to my office. As soon as possible"

"At once hokage-sama."

* _beep_ *

…..Ok now I'm confused. What the hell is going on?

"Have a seat Iruka-kun"

We wait for a while for the medic to arrive. While we were waiting, I sat at the couch thinking a mile a minute. Iruka, I noticed a few times, was looking at me sideways with confused frowns and a guilt full expression. Weird.

* _beep_ *

"Tora-san is here, hokage-sama"

"Send him in."

* _beep_ *

The medic was a tall man with pulled back black hair. He wore a standard konoha-nin uniform under a white lab-coat.

"How may I be of service, hokage-sama?"

"Tora-san, I want you to fully examine Arashi-kun's chakra network."

"Of course, Hokage-sama."

He came up to me and asked me lie down. Once I did, he put his hands on my chest and they started glowing green. Having medical chakra inside you is a very weird feeling. Weirder than having your own chakra running in your system. While my chakra feels like a constant warmth running through my body. The medical chakra felt like a chill wherever the man put his hands on me. He roamed his glowing hands all over my body and after what felt like hours to me he was done. He stood up and nodded towards ji-ji.

"Arashi-kun, go and sit in the waiting area for now."

"Hai"

So they are going to discuss about the kyuubi. But kyuubi is the reason I shouldn't be able to use any illusions.

* _sigh_ *

I guess there is no use thinking about it now. The medic will tell what hell happened and if I did use a genjutsu, how?

* * *

 **AN: I am bad at endings. For this chapter, I was going to continue, when I noticed that where I am is a good enough ending point for the chapter and ended it.**

 **The section about Narumi didn't come out as good or as funny as I expected but I tried. If anybody has any advice or ideas for improvements, I welcome you.**

 **Finally, the poll about team placements is still on but not for long. Hurry!**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter and expect the next one after the weekend.**

 **Bye**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Sooo i got some interesting reviews...but we will look at that later. What is more important is that only 6 chapters and the story has already got a pretty good response. Thank you.**

 **Also I am still looking for help with the summary and betaing.**

 **To the reviewers:**

 **Kazenos: Lets see. But I like the way you think.**

 **Thor94: I hear ya. simple Naruto will become boring if his twin is such an exciting mix (hopefully).**

 **torbash2005: Here you go!**

 **Bombadilo Baby: Hope you enjoy this one just as much.**

 **Dreamy-Girl2016: hope your exams went well? keep reading.**

 **Warlord of chaos: Yes Many arts and styles were never focused upon or elaborated at all in the show but that just gives us freedom to improvise! Plus I really like the you are thinking and mine isn't that far away from it either.**

 **Gooest: Well let's see what the poll says. I have a few ideas regarding every combination** **but we wouldn't to spoil the story now would we?**

 **Rainsfere: First of all I would like to say thank you. While a review praising you story is good for encouragement. Every once in a while someone reminding you of your mistakes is necessary. Now regarding the things you pointed out. Yes I had already noticed the inconsistency in the tenses and i have been trying to reduce it since 3rd chapter but i just redoubled my efforts for that, hope you agree. If you think it is still there PM me.** **The fourth chapter is when i realized the thing regarding Arashi's past life. Since then I have come up with a few ways of explaining his lack of remorse in the future. Another thing I had noticed was Arashi's childish behaviour. It is there for a reason (think a little you will get it why). Finally, Arashi's personality, that is the reason I started writing this story. I am bad at character development. I'm good at coming up with stories and plot-twists but I can't stick to the characters, I have difficulty adding any definition to them. So I will try to do that in the academy. Plus I rushed the orphanage part because I had fooloshly introduced more OC's than I could juggle at a time. Anyways thank you again and hope you keep reading and maybe enjoy it too.**

 **Enjoy, Review, Favorite and Follow.**

 **Disclaimer: Kishi is a bit possessive about it. So I still don't own Naruto.**

* * *

Waiting. Waiting never changes.

In earlier stages of mankind's evolution, man waited in his cave-shelter for light to come back outside so that he can go out again and avoid the dangers of the dark. At that time he didn't know that his simple act would grow into this terrible truth of reality. Waiting. In our lives at any given time, everybody is waiting for something. Waiting for an opportunity. Waiting for an idea. Waiting for a lover. Waiting for a friend. Waiting for the next chapter.

This act of waiting has become so ingrained into our lives. Yet, it is still powerful enough to render anyone insane. Because in my opinion there is no other reason to monologue about waiting.

… because waiting? Waiting never changes.

What am I waiting for? Well for the blasted medic to finish his report of course. I've been waiting for two hours. Two entire hours of my life wasted sitting here. If ji-ji weren't ji-ji and I didn't respect him as much as I do, I would be cussing up a storm in here.

"Arashi-kun are you sure hokage-sama asked you to wait instead of leaving?"

Oh, the secretary. She is the only reason whatever remains of my sanity does.

"I'm sure Korumi-san. He said" I hunch down a little and fold my hands behind my back doing my best ji-ji impression. "Arashi-kun, go and sit in the waiting room for now."

* _giggle_ *

"You are getting good at it Arashi-kun."

I continue with my sandaime impression.

"Hmm, Hmm. You see Korumi-san, those who give there all to a noble cause, the will of fire always lends help to them."

…..

…..

…

.

"He is standing behind me isn't he?"

"Yes, he is Arashi-kun." "Yes, I am Arashi-kun."

* _sigh_ *

I turn around and put on my most happy face and ask in a jovial voice.

"So. What did the medic say?"

"Just come inside the office."

"Of course."

Iruka is still in here, so is Tora-san the medic. Ji-ji goes around his desk to sit in his chair. He looks towards Iruka and Tora-san and gives them a small nod, dismissing them. He picks up his pipe and starts filling it up.

It's a clever trick he does. He picks up his pipe and starts filling it and he takes as much time as he needs while he gathers his thoughts and frames the words and sentences. He will not start speaking before he has filled, lit and taken a puff from his pipe. Plenty of time to think through any and all scenarios. Since he is the hokage everybody has no choice but to wait patiently.

After he is done thinking he lights it up and inhales deeply. He calls me up to his table.

"Arashi-kun what have you been taught about chakra in the academy."

"It's an energy inside everybody. It's made of two different energies, physical and spiritual. It is used to not only power all the techniques ninja use but to enhance body functions to increase its abilities. Also its complete depletion can cause death."

"Good, good."

He takes another puff and continues in his 'Professor mode'.

"While chakra is made by mixing physical and spiritual energies in equal parts, different kinds of techniques use different mixture of physical and spiritual energies. When a technique doesn't use one component or uses very little of it we call it 'Yin release' or 'Yang release'. Yin release is when the amount of physical energy used is very small compared to spiritual energy. Yang release is just opposite of that."

Is that a dumbed down version of the definitions? Because I remember differently.

"Generally, people are born with equal parts of both spiritual and physical energies and their energies develop as they progress with their lives. But sometimes individuals with an imbalance appear. Now that doesn't mean it is rare or bad, it just happens sometimes that someone's body is naturally stronger than their mind giving them more physical energy than spiritual. Your case is the opposite seeing that you have more spiritual energy than physical. Because of that it seems that yin release comes naturally to you. When you were talking with those girls you unknowingly put them in a genjutsu."

"But I didn't gather chakra or do any hand signs. I didn't even want to do anything to them."

"As I said Arashi-kun. Your spiritual energy is dominant. The part of your chakra that responds to your mind is more powerful than the part that listens to your body."

"…?"

* _sigh_ *

"Your thoughts, your emotions, your experience, it all affects your spiritual energy which is used for all the genjutsu techniques. Normally the energies want to be in balance with each other. So when spiritual energy is affected by our emotions, physical energy balances it out and that results in agitated chakra which happens when someone is experiencing hyper-emotions. Since your spiritual energy is dominant. Your physical energy isn't enough to balance all of the agitated spiritual energy."

….

…..

I'm confused.

Honestly, I was thinking it had something to do with kyuubi chakra.

But wasn't kyuubi the reason for Naruto not having any ability to use or resist genjutsu?

 _Wait!_ That's it!

It _is_ about Kurama's chakra inside me. Rather it is about Kurama's chakra inside both Naruto and I. In canon, Minato sealed the _yang_ half of Kurama's chakra inside Naruto while he put the _yin_ half in himself. Here he put the yin half in me.

Naruto's inability to use genjutsu doesn't come from excessive chakra or lack of control, but from excessive yang chakra while all the genjutsu are powered by yin release.

I have a massive quantity of potent and corrosive yin chakra inside me. Which is giving me an affinity towards genjutsu.

But it isn't limited to genjutsu, it means yin release as a whole. But what else is there in yin release?

Tentatively as if I was carefully testing the words as I was saying them I say "You said yin release comes naturally to me. What _is_ yin release?"

"You know about the nature releases?"

"Yes."

"Ninjutsu, as I have told you earlier, is the art of manipulating chakra to affect the world physically. Now, everybody's chakra is unique. It responds differently to different things for different people. Since it is a mixture of their physical and spiritual energy, a person's personality and body type affects their chakra. This gives rise to affinities."

Huh?

Weren't affinities dependent on genetics?

"These affinities are not limited to the five basic elements. Many people are very good at genjutsu rather than ninjutsu. These people have an easier time separating their spiritual energy and using it than others. Whereas many people can easily manipulate their physical energy. Like the five basic element releases, yin and yang releases are ways of manipulating one's chakra. Yin release involves separating spiritual energy from raw chakra, molding it and using it. Now there are many ways to use spiritual energy. The most common is to use it to manipulate others' spiritual energy, which is known as genjutsu."

That explains why genjutsu is considered to be yin release. While I have a rough idea of what yin release, yang release and yin-yang release are, I don't have any actual details about any of them. From what I remember, yin release could be used to make things out of thin air. While yang release could breathe life into still form. However, these are very powerful abilities and therefore, I don't think many (if any) people can actually do that.

Izanagi might be an example of that seeing that it can turn an illusion into reality.

Man Sharingan is OP.

But all of that is secondary to the problem we have at hand right now. I have no control over this ability of mine. Today, I put four eight year old girls under what seemed to be pretty scary genjutsu. Three of whom have civilian parents. It isn't doing any favor to my reputation but that is not my worry right now. What if this happens again? I need to learn to control that and progressing normally will not work. I need training in genjutsu or emotional control to control this or I'm doomed.

I hunch down, looking at my feet and utter as meekly as possible "What if I do it again?"

* _sigh_ *

"Don't worry too much about it now. Come to my office tomorrow after the academy and I'll have something for you by then."

"Ok"

"And make sure to apologize to the girls."

"Of course."

"Now go. Naruto must be worried about you and I have a lot of work to do."

"Hai."

* * *

It's a nice sunny day in konoha.

It's always a nice sunny day in konoha.

Most of the year.

Everybody is sweaty, irritated and hot. Why? Because it's a nice freaking sunny day in konoha.

On such days, I usually like to go to our spot in the woods. I thought I would make the top of the hokage monument my alone spot but Naruto claimed it first. And alone means away from everybody, including Naruto. I don't know if it's just me or for everybody else too but Naruto's overwhelming positivity sometimes gets too much to bear for me. His exuberant and excited personality and his seemingly never-ending energy is good when you need to lift your spirits and to forget about your problems. But when you want to think about them or to find a solution to them, it's usually better to do the thinking away from him. Naruto isn't the best brainstorming partner. His solution to any problem is to just wing it. If that doesn't work, he cleverly diverts the problem towards one of his allies. Me or ji-ji. For now that pretty much solves all of his problems.

Whenever I have a problem, I come to this place and sit on a rock in the middle of the river with a makeshift fishing rod in my hands and try to catch a fish or two. If I do catch a fish, then I cook it and eat it or bring it to the cook at the orphanage.

As I soak my feet in the river, I think about all of the life's problems and mysteries.

Today was…interesting.

Before I joined the academy and even after that I used to wonder what kind of ninja I would be. Everything from my get up to my fighting style to how I would use my fuinjutsu cleverly and how I would mix it with other techniques. I used to think on for hours and hours about different ideas to implement pieces of technology from modern earth using fuinjutsu. And just like that I found a general direction towards where my ninja career will go today.

Genjutsu.

Seeing Naruto's inability in the illusionary arts in canon, I had always assumed the same for me. Hence, I had never thought about anything regarding genjutsu. I had thought of using fuinjutsu to cover up for that weakness though. Naruto will still have that weakness so I guess, I will still try to find a cover up using fuinjutsu for him. I will have to teach it to him as well, the basics if nothing else. It's his heritage too and therefore he deserves to know it. It would be a steep task to teach him fuinjutsu, given his short attention span and dislike for anything involving pen and paper.

As I think and gather all the information I have regarding the yin and yang release, I realize that my knowledge on it is very vague. I know that the yin release can make form out of nothing while yang can bring life to the form. By mastering both, it is possible to make a living being. Not give birth to, _make._ This technique was the one that the sage of six paths used to make the nine biju. A technique called the creation of everything. But let's not get too far ahead just yet. I know that all genjutsu are considered yin release. I also know that the Yamanaka, the Nara and most of the Sharingan techniques are yin release. Tsunade's strength of hundred seals is yin release. As for the yang release, I know that the Akimichi clan techniques are yang release, so is the dead- bone pulse and other such techniques which manipulate one's body.

In its essence yin release is manipulation of yin or spiritual energy. The energy of the mind. Like its counterpart I would like to think it can be used to manipulate and enhance oneself. But experimenting with such techniques is highly dangerous. I can imagine right now, me turning myself into a vegetable while trying to speed up my brain or to copy the Yamanaka techniques using pure yin release. I can become quite good at genjutsu though if today was any indication. If I can become good enough at fuinjutsu in future to use it in active combat, then combining both these skills can be a very deadly combination. If I can master using kyuubi chakra mode like Naruto over all this? Then I am at team 7 level.

Another concern right now is what will ji-ji do to help me control my affinity? Will he order someone to train me? If so will they train Naruto too? Or will he find another way of stopping it? If he does ask someone to train me, then who? When thinking about genjutsu the first name that comes to mind is Kurenai. Who must be mentoring either Yakumo or Hinata already. Also I doubt ji-ji will allow me to learn proper genjutsu techniques right now when I am a second year academy student. It would have been a valid suggestion if I were a genin but there is some time to that.

* _sigh_ *

God this is a big headache.

I'm pretty sure that before the week ends everyone in konoha will know about this. Good thing that I have no need to go to the civilian sector. The worst thing is that one of them was Ino. Attacking the Yamanaka clan heiress will increase the wariness amongst the shinobi kind. But if I go and apologize to them tomorrow, at least Inoichi will forgive me.

It's getting pretty late. I should probably get back.

As soon as I get back to the orphanage, Naruto and Narumi are both in fretting around me. They were really worried about me.

Turns out, Ino didn't even wait for the next day to spread the news about today. Using techniques on fellow konoha citizens especially without consent is a big deal. While I am not being punished, it is because it could be proven that it was an accident and because the hokage knows me. By tomorrow everyone in the academy and their guardians will know about it and by the end of the week the entire konoha. There is no stopping it now.

Let's hope for the best tomorrow.

* * *

Naruto, Narumi and I usually go to the academy together. We always enter the classroom and take the last seats near the window (it's easier to skip quickly from there). We aren't the popular kids nor are we in any way important to the other kids in the class, so nobody bothers us usually (unless it's a Naruto-Sasuke issue). Today however, as soon as we entered the classroom, everybody turned to look at us (or me) and it became eerily quiet all of a sudden. I barely held my composure and walked up to my usual seat with Naruto and Narumi right behind me. After a while everybody goes back to their business but I can still hear a few whisper conversing about me. Well, I guess its show time.

I walk up to Ino. Sakura and a few other girls are still around her. On my approach they stopped whatever their conversation was about.

"Ahhh, Ohayo Ino-san, Sakura-san."

"What do you want!?"

Ok they are not happy with me I can understand that.

"About yesterday. Iruka-sensei and I talked to the hokage and he had a medic test me chakra network and they found out what happed."

"What is there to find about? You used that horrible genjutsu on us."

Oh that's BG girl no.2. Good to know that she's there.

"Yeah so it turns out that I have a very high affinity for genjutsu and that my chakra is imbalanced and therefore I unintentionally used that genjutsu on you."

"Huh?"

See? Using big words on kids always works.

"I mean it was a mistake. I didn't even know why you were running away from me at that time. My chakra went out of control because I was mad and I didn't want to do anything like that it just happened. Anyway I just wanted to apologize for that so I'm sorry."

"Well its ok I guess….. Wait a sec why were you mad?"

"Huh? Well you insulted my brother sooo." Does she not remember what happened yesterday?

"Uh oh ok then" why is she blushing now?

Weird girl.

I see the two background girls would like to say some more but their opinion to me is inconsequential right now. Sakura is really shy right now I guess because she is blushing too.

I will never understand women.

So we continued with the day. Iruka came and lectured away on the second war and then there was the shinobi code of conduct. I usually only keep an ear open so that I will know when he is talking about something I don't already know. Narumi takes elaborate notes of everything he says. She is really set to beat Sakura in academics and become the top kunoichi. Naruto just doesn't have enough f***s to give.

After the lecture fest we go to ground for the usual PE session. The senior class is packing up. I searched all of them for any familiar faces and I spotted a tiny girl with her hair in twin buns. Wow little Tenten is too cute. Should I go and talk to her? But it would be weird to call such a cute widdle girl senpai. Oh well.

The taijutsu spars have become a routine for us. They are more or less fixed anyway. In our first year when we started kata training and then sparring a new teacher took over. Guess who… Mizuki.

The matches Mizuki sets up are not fair. Everybody knows that, but you can't question it because 'ninja life is not fair'. He usually pairs the clanless civilian kids and the orphans against the clan children. Even then Naruto and I have a special spot against Sasuke. Our usual partners are Kiba or Sasuke. He keeps alternating between that. Oh good he called my name. Let's get ready for our ass whooping today.

* * *

As asked, after the academy was over I went straight to ji-ji's office. I thought that I was prepared for whatever was going to happen. I was not.

As I entered the office, ji-ji called me towards him.

"Is that him hokage-sama?"

And that is when I looked at the other person in the room.

He was wearing round sunglasses, a dark blue bandana over his head and a standard konoha nin uniform. Yes people I'm talking about Ebisu. Huh. I guess Konohamaru would be too young for any kind of training. But seriously?

The look I gave ji-ji after checking out Ebisu, conveyed the same. ' _Are you kidding me?_ '

He merely chuckled and then proceeded to introduce us.

"Ebisu meet Arashi Uzumaki."

"Arashi this is Ebisu-san. He will be teaching you a few things to help you control your chakra better and thus to prevent you from accidentally using it again."

"Don't you worry hokage-sama. I will definitely take care of the issue as well as young Arashi."

"Good, good. You can take him and begin now."

"At once hokage-sama"

Dear lord! Ebisu. Why didn't it ever cross my mind? Ebisu the basic specialist. The person who made special jounin solely on the knowledge of basic shinobi skills.

* * *

 **AN: The poll is still there by the way.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: So, first of all I am sorry this one took a little longer, real life called. I really enjoyed writing certain parts of this chapter I'll tell you later which ones.**

 **Rainsfere I have a feeling you might have a few complains from this chapter I do to. LETS DISCUSS XD**

 **To the reviewers:**

 **EmmieSauce: Good Idea and it is something to think on but not yet.**

 **Owlgirl: At first i didnt understand what reaction you were talking about and i had to go back to the chapter and re-read it to get what you were saying but yeah i guess you are right but it is pretty minor so i am gonna let it stay. It's too much a hassle to go back and change it. Regarding the team placements all your points are valid but there is one thing regarding that that no one is noticing and that I have decided to write maybe a full chapter about it in the story. It is something that might shake the entire narutoverse. Think! The story needs to go very carefully at that point to avoid this one possibility. Finally yeah I have already stated I am not good at endings sooo Sorry?  
**

 **Anyway I still want help with the summary. I mean look at it. It sucks. Please Help me.**

 **Please Review, Favorite and Follow.**

 **The guards and the servants at Kishi's house know me pretty well by now I have visited so often but Kishi just refuses to see me. So sadly Naruto is still his.**

* * *

In its base instructions, meditating is quite an easy task. Sit in a comfortable yet posture-wise healthy position and regulate and focus on your breathing. But the wild running thoughts of the mind don't make it easy to forget them. The additional task of focusing on the movement of your chakra surely helps. If a certain level of calmness is achieved it is possible to dive within deeper levels of one's consciousness. Again not an easy task.

As I had predicted, Ebisu was not going to teach me any actual techniques or help me gain mastery on my affinity. He was there to make sure that I know when my chakra might go out of control and then teach me how to stop it. His solution to it were meditating and chakra control exercises. He also thought that increasing what meager and small (relatively) amount of physical energy I have might also help, so my physical training was increased as well.

Every day after the academy, we start our routine meditating for an hour or two, followed by chakra control exercises and then physical training. Naruto is with us all this while. I tried to explain what the special training was for but he just pouted and whined about me getting unfair extra training until both Ebisu and the hokage agreed to include him too. He then wanted to include Narumi as well but ji-ji put his foot down. I increased the morning training with Narumi and shared the tips Ebisu gave us with her and that was good enough for Naruto.

At first I was a bit apprehensive regarding Ebisu as well. He was shown to not be very fond of Naruto. Well, as it turns out he is just a stickler for propriety and manners. As a result he and Naruto don't get along. Plus he asks us to sit tight and meditate so it is natural that Naruto doesn't like him. Otherwise Ebisu is just fine.

It took Naruto around two weeks but he managed to get the hang of meditating. He is one of the few people to master sage arts.

When we started meditating, I thought about seeing my mindscape but it isn't as easy as it looks in the show. It's been five weeks and I haven't made any progress. My chakra control have improved however, I can stick the leaf for five whole seconds on my forehead. Might not seem that impressive but I couldn't stick it at all before I started this routine. The leaf just launched off every time I tried. Naruto's chakra control have improved a little as well, not much, a little.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in…..

Right now we are at it again. Meditating. Like every day in past five weeks, I am trying to reach that level of calmness required to reach in your mind. As I focus on the slow and circulatory movement of my chakra I have a sudden feeling like I am falling backwards. It's not the first time I have felt it. It is the very feeling I am looking for. The first time I experienced it was a week ago. When I asked Ebisu he had told me that it happens when we lose perception of the outer world and reach a higher perception of our inner self. Every time I have reached that feeling, I jolt out of it or I break my concentration to brace myself only to realize that I wasn't really falling.

The feeling is extremely distracting and annoying. It's …

What am I doing!? Don't break the concentration. Don't break the concentration. Don't break the concentration.

I'm falling. I'm still falling. Still falling.

Huh?

I feel like I opened my eyes but I don't see anything.

Wait!

That's it! This is my mindscape!

Wait! That's it? This is my mindscape?

It's just a large dark empty space. There's nothing here except the… wait there isn't even a floor. I'm floating in a black empty space. This can't be my mindscape. It's supposed to be the representation of my soul, of my mind, of me. It can't be this…. this….. nothing. Wait there is something here. It took a bit of looking around but I found light coming from somewhere.

I 'float' towards the light and try to reach out to it, but as I came near the distance between me and the source of the light grew. It is going away.

I try to follow it and I keep chasing it for quite a while, but it kept slipping away. After what felt like hours of chasing, I almost reached it, but was suddenly jolted out of it all by Ebisu.

"What happened? Are you ok? You weren't responding." He seems really worried. Did something happen while I was in there?

"Um no, I'm fine. Why? Did something happen?"

"Well we called you and you weren't answering and then I tried to shake you and then the sunglasses guy tried to shake you. I thought you passed out from how boring it is." Well that is an interesting theory.

"No. Everything is fine. It seems you were deep in meditation. When we called you, you didn't respond so I was wondering what happened. But see? Already you are so good at meditating and centering yourself. You must have noticed that you chakra control has improved too. Under my guidance you shall keep progressing like that."

Yeah, another thing about Ebisu is that he is a bit too proud of his teaching abilities. He keeps telling us that we will become legendary ninjas just because he is teaching us. Weird.

"Yeah sure Ebisu-sensei. So what are we doing now?"

"Ahhh right right. So chakra control. How long can you stick the leaf now?"

* * *

Well today was interesting. I was distracted for the rest of the day. I tried to busy myself with training or other fuinjutsu study but I just couldn't stop thinking about what happened when I was meditating. What was that light? Why was it going away from me? What was that place? The more I thought about it the more confused I got. Usually Naruto can distract and make you forget anything for a little while. Whenever he is around he just attracts attention like nobody's business. Today however it isn't working. The more he tries to engage me in a conversation or to involve me into the planning of his next large prank, the more annoyed I get. When this happens I usually go to our camping spot in the woods to clear my mind but it is pretty late right so now so I guess I will just go to sleep early today.

"Hey"

As I was about to lie down in my bed, Narumi came into the room.

"Hey"

"You sleeping already?"

"Yeah. I was feeling tired so I thought I would turn in."

"Did something happen? You were acting all mopey and weird today."

"Nah. Nothing like that. Just tired is all."

"Is something bothering you? ... I know that face. That's your 'I have a secret that I don't want to share' face."

"I have an 'I don't want to share a secret face'?"

"You do. So what is it?"

"If I tell you, it won't be a secret anymore."

"Come on~, Raa~ashi. Tell me the see~cret."

"Alright alright I'll tell you stop whining already."

"What is it? What is it?"

"Well, this afternoon when we were meditating, I saw something."

"What?"

"I was floating in a dark empty space and following a small spot of bright light."

* _staa~re_ *

"Well I told you. Now say something."

"I cannot believe this. You've been down in the dumps because of a dream." She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

"It wasn't a dream. I was in my mind."

"In your mind dreaming."

"* _sigh_ * I'm going to sleep."

"So you can have another dream and be sad about it?"

"Gaah. Just let me sleep woman."

"Haha. Alright go to sleep good night."

"Good night 'rumi"

* * *

Things at academy have changed since that day. While the members of the Uchiha fanclub hated Naruto and Kiba pretty much since the beginning, I was now on their list too. It's not like their opinion matters to me but I don't like being disliked. I don't know what more I could do. I apologized to the girls and I even apologized to their parents, or at least I tried to. When Inoichi came to pick up Ino after the academy the day after the incident, I apologized to him. I tried to do the same to the other girls' parents too but they just gave me a nasty glare and left before I could say anything.

Ino is also like a sister to Shikamaru and Choji. So they were pretty mad at me too, but after I explained everything to Shikamaru and then told him about my apologies to everyone involved he calmed down. He even checked out and ensured me that Ino's dad wasn't mad at me (I told him that a clan head being mad at an orphan could be really bad for me). However, since Ino wasn't ready to forgive me yet we had to stop hanging out. That is the thing which bums me out the most. Iruka and the academy teachers haven't changed. A few new and young teachers however are pretty scared of Naruto and me now. They don't teach us in any class and I doubt that they will in the future so it's fine.

Sasuke somehow got the impression that I was learning and had genjutsu techniques. It was about two weeks into my training with Ebisu when he approached me and demanded that I tell him who is teaching me and that I ask them to teach him instead. That conversation went _**bad.**_ His broody face might look cool to the girls and annoying to boys like Naruto but his face was essentially an angry pout and a frown on an eight year olds face. It was cute as hell. I just couldn't stop laughing. He had been back to the academy for a month and a half now, I can't believe I waited that long to see it. But the more I laughed the angrier he got. I tried to stop but I just kept bursting out. After a few minutes of mad cackling, I had finally calmed down enough to have a conversation. Sasuke, however, was beyond furious by now. I was actually a little scared to tell him that I didn't actually know any genjutsu nor was anybody teaching me. I did tell him however and then he started berating me for false bragging. His words however harsh didn't hurt though because I hadn't done any such thing. In fact I was more confused. As far as I knew other than Narumi, only the people involved knew about my training. Till then I was under the assumption that he heard about what happened with Ino and just assumed from there.

A little investigation told me that it was Naruto. He bragged that his ji-ji asked a real ninja to give us both extra training because we were just that awesome. Fortunately nobody knows who his ji-ji is and Naruto never refers to him by his title or name. Somehow the news about me using unauthorized genjutsu and me and Naruto getting extra training got mixed and turned into me getting advanced genjutsu training. However I have mastered the art of calming the academy rumor mill down. The biggest player is obviously Ino. In other classes it's the other Yamanakas but if Ino were to say or spread something the others usually agree with her (perks of being the heiress I guess). Therefore, manipulating Ino means manipulating the rumors. Of course it isn't easy to manipulate a Yamanaka even the academy students, but the children of the Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi clans are brought up with certain values. One of them being 'always listen to the Nara'. So despite the appearances Shikamaru had the power to control the information flow amongst the academy students. Again, if manipulating a Yamanaka is a monumental task, manipulating a Nara is impossible. As luck would have it, my brother was one of the most charismatic guys to exist in this world ever (literally). So he had already befriended Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba right from the beginning. Also Shikamaru was not only intelligent but also a good guy. Once he heard my predicament, he guilt tripped Ino. She still didn't forgive me but she did however spread a rumor about me getting punished by the hokage for using the genjutsu and that the training was nothing but useless bragging from Naruto. The rumors obviously escalated and became a sob story about a poor orphan getting unjustly punished for an accident involving the Yamanaka heiress. After that it was immediately shut down. I still don't know how?

Sasuke has been more cruel and violent in his takedowns whenever we are paired to spar in taijutsu class since then. I try to see it as motivation to improve. You don't want to get hurt? Well don't suck at taijutsu then how about that? Naruto however gets more and more livid every time. He tries to pay him back on my behalf but Sasuke really is good at taijutsu. Losing again and again was making him frustrated too but being the stubborn knucklehead he is, he just keeps increasing his daily training and keeps challenging Sasuke day after day.

Narumi used to be our social contact for the academy rumor mill but ever since the genjutsu incident she has been getting cold shoulders from other girls too because of her association to us. It doesn't seem to be bothering her much, as she didn't get along with Ino or her groupies anyway but she is very social so I know she had good relations with everyone.

Me? I am a nerd. I was a nerd and always will be. I didn't have very many friends in the first place. Naruto, Narumi and our roommates at the orphanage are more than enough for me. Sure I did use to hang out with Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba but that was because Naruto used to drag me along. If it wasn't for that I was planning on translating a few stories from modern earth. Once I met Jiraiya and he took us on the training trip I was thinking of publishing them under a cool pen name.

Anyways since Shika and Choji can't hang with us and tolerating Kiba and Naruto together is just too much for me alone, here I am, skipping classes to catch up on my fuinjutsu study. Iruka sensei is still ignoring us so he doesn't leave his class to go and find Naruto, and thus we can do whatever we want. We have been doing this for quite some time. We five leave the theory classes and spend that time doing something or the other together. We used to cloud watch earlier or go to an Akimichi restaurant and eat, upon my asking we even practiced our throwing weapons skills once or twice. These days Shika just sleeps in the class and Choji sits beside him munching away on his chips. As a result Naruto and Kiba collaborate in pranking people. I just sit in the academy playground and read or study.

The first book on fuinjutsu ji-ji had given me was filled with boring theory but being the nerd I am, I read and understood it thoroughly within a month. Ji-ji quizzed me on the book to check it and after that I had another similar book in my hands, filled with theory. I did finish it too but when he gave me a third theory book I decided to take it slow. Later I found out that it was one book about all the theoretical concepts of fuinjutsu written by Jiraiya and Minato and ji-ji had divided it into five parts for me. After the third part ji-ji said that the other two are above my level and that I should start practicing basic seals for now.

I was right about fuinjutsu being similar to computer programming but it isn't like the normal high level programming, it like the boring tedious assembly level programming. You can't just ask it to walk you have to tell it to raise one leg, use a particular muscle to induce the forward motion in the leg, then put it down , establish balance and then repeat with the other leg. Conveniently, creating small pocket dimensions from the storage seal is surprisingly easy. On the other hand the storage seal is easy to mess up too and it can lead to rather dangerous accidents. Like the seal eating up and storing a limb along with the object meant to be stored. That is why I have been given strict instructions about not testing a seal before getting it checked by ji-ji himself and even after that only under his supervision. I mastered the completely harmless ones first like the glowing kanji or a sound making seal. These too can have dangerous accidents (too much light or heat along with it and too loud sound making you deaf) but they are rather safe comparatively. Once I had a few like those down I showed them to Naruto. I told him that once I get better at it I will be able to make seals so good I wouldn't even need to master any flashy ninjutsu techniques. He immediately started calligraphy practice. He practices for an hour or two daily from that day. No matter how boring he thinks it is, if an activity gives the result Naruto wants he will do it. As shown by our self-study sessions where Narumi teaches us everything we missed in the classes.

The best way to get good at making the basic seals is to remove the chakra temporarily. The result is just a pattern or a large symbol but it is completely safe to do. Once ji-ji thinks I am good enough that I will not do it wrong, I can use chakra and make an actual storage seal. I was doing just that, making chakra-less storage seal when Narumi of all people showed up. "Shouldn't you be in the class?" she should be. She is the one who teaches everything to Naruto and it's because of her that I know what to study for the tests.

"Iruka-sensei was revising everything he taught this week so I slept a little. He saw and kicked me out."

"Well that's a little harsh. Shika sleeps all the time and he was never kick out of the class."

"Shika is also the Nara heir. Teachers are all partial to all of them."

"Not Iruka-sensei. He treats everyone equally. At least he tries to."

"I don't know. Did you know I can actually see your spot from the class?"

"You can?"

"Yup. See that window right there?" she said pointing towards a window in the academy building on the second floor.

"I do."

"Well that's our classroom."

"So can everyone see me from there?"

"Pretty much."

"And you never told me?"

"Today is the first time I noticed. I was looking outside the window when I spotted you and then I fell asleep and then…."

"What?"

"Aaah nothing! Nothing." She blushed and looked away. Huh?

"Anyway did Iruka sensei see me from the classroom?"

"I think so? You're pretty clearly visible from there so…"

"Well if he won't come and bother me then I can stay here. Good….. you want to do something."

"Where is Naruto? He wasn't in the class either so I thought he would be with you."

"Naruto and Kiba are planning some big prank."

"Oh."

"They are too loud together to tolerate alone."

"So what are you doing?"

"Fuinjutsu."

"Hmm I'm a little hungry you wanna go and eat something?"

"Alright where do you get the money from?"

"Huh?"

"The money! Orphans don't get money. I know the hokage personally and even I don't get any money. Where are you getting it from?"

"Well that is my secret. You wanna eat or not. Come on. It's free food. Don't be an idiot 'Rashi only idiots refuse free food." Those are some really wise words. Of course they are.

"Those are my words."

"Then follow your own advice 'Rashi and don't be an idiot."

"* _sigh_ * Fine I want dango."

"That's what I like to hear."

"I will find out one day where you get it from."

"Oh I'm sure you will" Great now she's cooing at me.

* * *

Even if we bunk the theory classes we all are always present for the physical class. We compare our throwing skills and taijutsu during this time. Mizuki, who is usually in charge of our class' physical activities, taught many things wrong to me and Naruto. Things like how to grip and handle the kunai and shuriken while throwing them, how to aim them. The first time I noticed it was when he taught me something and then something completely different to the guy standing next to me. After that I observed the seniors practice and even asked Mitsu-nee to correct our stances. It took some effort but I was able to remove those mistakes from Naruto and my ways before they could become habits. Mizuki still tried to 'correct' our stances or the way we did katas but Naruto said that that is how his ji-ji taught him. Mizuki didn't understand at that time but later on he saw ji-ji come to get us after the academy and immediately got the message. He stopped bothering with us at all like Iruka after that. I think ji-ji had some hand in it too seeing that he rarely comes to pick us up.

We had the regular sessions of katas, throwing practice, endurance training and then spars. As per the norm, Mizuki pairs the civilian and orphans children against clan children. I still don't know why he does that, as far as I know he is a civilian born shinobi too. Anyways it's me against Kiba, Naruto is up against Sasuke and Narumi is against Hinata. Hinata doesn't use the gentle fist in these spars and so Narumi usually wins. A major advantage to her is that Hinata is really scared to hurt someone. Once she was sparring with a civilian girl and the other girl took a hit, Hinata immediately stopped fighting and rushed to the girl to fuss over her. The girl was confused as to why Hinata was so worried over a light bruise.

The spars went as expected. Naruto and I both lost our matches, Narumi won. Sakura won against some other civilian girl, Ino won against another one. Shika just gave up. Choji's opponent ran out of bounds. Shino's fight was a long and interesting one. His opponent is from a very minor shinobi clan's main family. So minor they are barely a clan but they have quite a long history.

The classes were over now and Naruto and I are rushing towards the training ground where Ebisu would be waiting for us. As usual we start with meditating once again and I am determined to find what was that place and the light. As sometime passes in my meditation the feeling of loss of balance comes again. I embrace the feeling and keep falling but didn't break my concentration. After a while I open my eyes and I am floating in the dark place again. And there is the light again. I chase after it for some time, just when I am about to get frustrated I almost reach it. As I see it now from close by, I realize that it was a doorway. I enter and it is too bright for me to see anything. A moment later my eyes get used to the brightness (or the brightness lessened maybe as I didn't have a physical body in here) I see that it is the opposite of the dark place it's a .. white…. Place. A white empty place.

There is someone else in here!

I float towards what looks like a person to me. It's weird to have someone else in my mindscape or whatever this place is. But as I near it I keep getting anxious for some reason.

Now that I have reached the person, I recognize him. How could I not? It's…. me. Or Rajesh specifically. But he seems _glitchy._ His right hand keeps flickering between visible and invisible, his clothes keep changing colors, half of his face is covered by what seems like a green colored rectangle, his entire body keeps changing positions in and he seems to be 2D. While I was noting all these weird things about him he noticed me too.

"Wh T aR∑ ¥µ€ d...d... DoiNg herE?"

Even his voice is distorted and barely making sense.

Before I could give any reply to his question, I was violently pushed away from him.

"G0 αώ..Aϒ!"

So hard that I flew through the door again. As I crossed the doorway back into the dark place, I saw the door slam shut and there was only darkness left.

* * *

 **AN:Yes! Another sucky ending. It's my try at a cliffhanger. I know, it's embarrassing. Anyways till now I know that Narumi hadn't got much focus so I want to know what kind of character does she feel to everyone. Please tell me. I want to establish her more clearly before graduation and Arashi too.**

 **Hope you Enjoyed. Bye.**


	9. sorry for the delay

**AN: Sorry folks! I know it's been a loong time (Actually, the amount of time I have waited for new chapters from some stories is much longer but who's counting..). Still I apologize for the delay. But you know, life is a bitch. It gets in the way. So, priorities you know. Anyways, now that I finally have some time on my hands, I'm going to start working on this again. I already have a rough outline for the next two-three chapters in my mind already. So it's going to go a little smoother from here on (hopefully). So, expect the new chapter in the next two (maaybe three) weeks. I won't keep you waiting for long. Pinky swear!**


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